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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and
+Other Stories, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2004 [EBook #12798]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROCK AND POOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David McLachlan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+             ***NOTE TO READERS***
+
+This file is encoded using the ASCII character set.
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+The text in this file contains a number of characters not contained in
+the standard ASCII character set. To enable the display of these
+characters the following alternatives have been placed in the text:
+
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+    accented letter. For example a| is used to indicate the letter a
+    with a macron diacritical.
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+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_By_ ROCK & POOL
+On An Austral Shore
+
+_By_ LOUIS BECKE
+
+AUTHOR OF "PACIFIC TALES,"
+"BY REEF AND PALM," ETC., ETC.
+
+New Amsterdam Book Company
+156 FIFTH AVENUE: NEW YORK CITY: MCMI
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+BY ROCK AND POOL
+
+SOLEPA
+
+THE FISHER FOLK OF NUKUFETAU
+
+MRS. MACLAGGAN'S BILLY
+
+AN ISLAND MEMORY
+
+A HUNDRED FATHOMS DEEP
+
+ON A TIDAL RIVER
+
+DENISON GETS ANOTHER SHIP
+
+JACK SHARK'S PILOT
+
+THE "PALU" OF THE EQUATORIAL PACIFIC
+
+THE WILY "GOANNER"
+
+THE TA~NIFA OF SAMOA
+
+ON BOARD THE _TUCOPIA_
+
+THE MAN IN THE BUFFALO HIDE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS--HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS
+
+
+
+
+_By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore_
+
+
+The quaint, old-fashioned little town faces eastward to the blue
+Pacific, whose billows, when the wind blows from any point between north
+and east, come tumbling in across the shallow bar in ceaseless lines of
+foaming white, to meet, when the tide is on the ebb, the swift current
+of a tidal river as broad as the Thames at Westminster Bridge. On the
+south side of the bar, from the sleepy town itself to the pilot station
+on the Signal Hill, there rises a series of smooth grassy bluffs, whose
+seaward bases touch the fringe of many small beaches, or start sheer
+upward from the water when the tide is high, and the noisy swish and
+swirl of the eager river current has ceased.
+
+As you stand on the Signal Hill, and look along the coast, you see a
+long, long monotonous line of beach, trending northward ten miles from
+end to end, forming a great curve from the sandspit on the north side of
+the treacherous bar to the blue loom of a headland in shape like the
+figure of a couchant lion. Back from the shore-line, a narrow littoral
+of dense scrub, impervious to the rays of the sun, and unbroken in its
+solitude except by the cries of birds, or the heavy footfall of wild
+cattle upon the thick carpet of fallen leaves; and then, far to the
+west, the dimmed, shadowy outline of the main coastal range.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a keen, frosty morning in June--the midwinter of Australia--and as
+the red sun bursts through the sea-rim, a gentle land breeze creeps
+softly down from the mountain forest of gums and iron-barks, and blows
+away the mists that, all through a night of cloudless calm, have laid
+heavily upon the surface of the sleeping ocean. One by one the doors of
+the five little white-painted, weather-boarded houses which form the
+quarters of the pilot-boat's crew open, and five brown, hairy-faced men,
+each smoking a pipe, issue forth, and, hands in pockets, scan the
+surface of the sea from north to south, for perchance a schooner, trying
+to make the port, may have been carried along by the current from the
+southward, and is within signalling distance to tell her whether the bar
+is passable or not. For the bar of the Port is as changeable in its
+moods as the heart of a giddy maid to her lovers--to-day it may invite
+you to come in and take possession of its placid waters in the harbour
+beyond; to-morrow it may roar and snarl with boiling surf and savage,
+eddying currents, and whirlpools slapping fiercely against the grim,
+black rocks of the southern shore.
+
+Look at the five men as they stand or saunter about on the smooth,
+frosty grass. They are sailormen--one and all--as you can see by their
+walk and hear by their talk; rough, ready, and sturdy, though not so
+sturdy nor so square-built as your solid men of brave old Deal; but a
+long way better in appearance and character than the sponging,
+tip-seeking, loafing fraternity of slouching, lazy robbers who on the
+parades of Brighton, Hastings, and Eastbourne, and other fashionable
+seaside resorts in this country, lean against lamp-posts with "Licensed
+Boatman" writ on their hat-bands, and call themselves fishermen, though
+they seldom handle a herring or cod that does not come from a
+fishmonger's shop. These Australians of British blood are leaner in
+face, leaner in limb than the Kentish men, and drink whiskey instead of
+coffee or tea at early morn. But see them at work in the face of danger
+and death on that bar, when the surf is leaping high and a schooner lies
+broadside on and helpless to the sweeping rollers, and you will say that
+a more undaunted crew never gripped an oar to rescue a fellow-sailorman
+from the hungry sea.
+
+One of them, a grey-haired, deeply-bronzed man of sixty, with his neck
+and hands tatooed in strange markings, imprinted thereon by the hands of
+the wild natives of Tucopia, in the South Seas, with whom he has lived
+forty years before as one of themselves, is mine own particular friend
+and crony, for his two sons have been playmates with my brothers and
+myself, who were all born in this quaint old-time seaport of the first
+colony in Australia; this forgotten remnant of the dread days of the
+awful convict system, when the clank of horrible gyves sounded on the
+now deserted and grass-grown streets, and the swish of the hateful and
+ever active "cat" was heard within the walls of the huge red-brick
+prison on the bluff facing the sea. Oh, the old, old memories of those
+hideous times! How little they wounded or troubled our boyish minds, as
+we, bent on some fishing or hunting venture along the coast, walked
+along a road which had been first soddened by tears and then dried by
+the panting, anguished breathings of beings fashioned in the image of
+their Creator, as they toiled and died under the brutal hands of their
+savage task-masters--the civilian officials of that cruel "System"
+which, by the irony of fate, the far-seeing, gentle, and tender-hearted
+Arthur Phillip, the founder of Australia, was first appointed to
+administer.
+
+But away with such memories for the moment. Over the lee side with them
+into the Sea of the Past, together with the clank of the fetters and the
+hum of the cat and the merciless laws of the time; sink them all
+together with the names of the military rum-selling traducers of the
+good Phillip, and of ill-tempered, passionate sailor Bligh of the
+_Bounty_--honest, brave, irascible, vindictive; destroyer of his ship's
+company on that fateful adventure to Tahiti, hero of the most famous
+boat-voyage the world has ever known; sea-bully and petty "hazer" of
+hapless Fletcher Christian and his comrades, gallant officer in battle
+and thanked by Nelson at Copenhagen; conscientious governor of a
+starveling colony gasping under the hands of unscrupulous military
+money-makers, William Bligh deserves to be remembered by all men of
+English blood who are proud of the annals of the most glorious navy in
+the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But ere we descend to the beach to wander by rock and pool in this
+glowing Australian sun, the warm, loving rays of which are fast drying
+the frost-coated grass, let us look at these square, old-time monuments
+to the dead, placed on the Barrack Hill, and overlooking the sea. There
+are four in all, but around them are many low, sunken headstones of
+lichen-covered slabs, the inscriptions on which, like many of those on
+the stones in the cemetery by the reedy creek, have long since vanished.
+
+There, indeed, if you care to brave the snake-haunted place you will
+discover a word, or the part of a word--"Talav----," "Torre----Vedras,"
+"Vimiera," or "Badaj----," or "Fuentes de On----," and you know that
+underneath lies the dust of men who served their country well when the
+Iron Duke was rescuing Europe from the grip of the bloodstained
+Corsican. On one, which for seventy years has faced the rising sun and
+the salty breath of the ocean breeze, there remains but the one glorious
+word, "Aboukir!" every indented letter thickly filled with grey moss and
+lichen, though the name of he who fought there has disappeared, and
+being but that of some humble seaman, is unrecorded and unknown in the
+annals of his country. How strange it seems! but yet how fitting that
+this one word alone should be preserved by loving Nature from the
+decaying touch of Time. Perhaps the very hand of the convict mason who
+held the chisel to the stone struck deeper as he carved the letters of
+the name of the glorious victory.
+
+But let us away from here; for in the hot summer months amid these
+neglected and decaying memorials of the dead, creeping and crawling in
+and out of the crumbling masonry of the tombs, gliding among the long,
+reedy grass, or lying basking in the sun upon the fallen headstones, are
+deadly black and brown snakes. They have made this old, time-forgotten
+cemetery their own favourite haunting place; for the waters of the creek
+are near, and on its margin they find their prey. Once, so the shaky old
+wharfinger will tell you, a naval lieutenant, who had been badly wounded
+in the first Maori war, died in the commandant's house. He was buried
+here on the bank of the creek, and one day his young wife who had come
+from England to nurse him and found him dead, sat down on his grave and
+went to sleep. When she awoke, a great black snake was lying on her
+knees. She died that day from the shock.
+
+The largest of these four monuments on the bluff stands nearest to the
+sea, and the inscription on the heavy flat slab of sandstone which
+covers it is fairly legible:--
+
+      Sacred to the Memory of
+           JAMES VAUGHAN,
+    Who was a Private in Captain
+       Fraser Allan's Company
+       of the 40th Regiment,
+Who died on the 24th November, 1823,
+    of a Gunshot Wound Received
+   on the 20th Day of the Month,
+       when in Pursuit of a
+         Runaway Convict.
+          Aged 25 years.
+
+The others record the names of the "infant son and daughters of Mr. G.
+Smith, Commissariat Storekeeper," and of "Edward Marvin, who died 4th
+July, 1821, aged 21 years."
+
+Many other sunken headstones denote the last resting-places of soldiers
+and sailors, and civilian officials, who died between 1821 and 1830,
+when the little port was a thriving place, and when, as the old gossips
+will tell you, it made a "rare show, when the Governor came here, and
+Major Innes--him as brought that cussed lantana plant from the
+Peninsula--sent ninety mounted men to escort him to Lake Innes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The tide is low, and the flat _congewoi_-covered ledges of reef on the
+southern side of the bar lie bare and exposed to the sun. Here and there
+in the crystal pools among the rocks, fish have been left by the tide,
+and as you step over the _congewoi_, whose teats spurt out jets of
+water to the pressure of your foot, large silvery bream and gaily-hued
+parrot-fish rush off and hide themselves from view. But tear off a piece
+of _congewoi,_ open it, and throw the sanguinary-coloured delicacy into
+the water, and presently you will see the parrot-fish dart out eagerly,
+and begin to tear it asunder with their long, irregular, and needle-like
+teeth, whilst the more cautious and lordly bream, with wary eye and
+gentle, undulating tail, watch from underneath a ledge for a favourable
+moment to dash out and secure a morsel.
+
+In some of the wider and shallower ponds are countless thousands of
+small mullet, each about three or four inches in length, and swimming
+closely together in separated but compact battalions. Some, as the sound
+of a human footstep warns them of danger, rush for safety among the
+submerged clefts and crevices of their temporary retreat, only to be
+mercilessly and fatally enveloped by the snaky, viscous tentacles of the
+ever-lurking octopus, for every hole and pool among the rocks contains
+one or more of these hideously repulsive creatures.
+
+Sometimes you will see one crawling over the _congewoi_, changing from
+one pool to another in search of prey; its greeny-grey eyes regard you
+with defiant malevolence. Strike it heavily with a stick, or thrust it
+through with a spear, and in an instant its colour, which a moment
+before was either a dark mottled brown or a mingled reddish-black,
+changes to a ghastly, horrible, marbled grey; the horrid tentacles
+writhe and cling to the weapon, or spread out and adhere to the
+surrounding points of rock, a black, inky fluid is ejected from the
+soft, pulpy, and slimy body; and then, after raining blow after blow
+upon it, it lies unable to crawl away, but still twisting and turning,
+and showing its red and white suckers--a thing of horror indeed, the
+embodiment of all that is hateful, wicked, and malignant in nature.
+
+Some idea of the numbers of these crafty and savage denizens of the
+limpid pools may be obtained by dropping a baited fishing line in one of
+the deeper spots. First you will see one, and then another, thin end of
+a tentacle come waveringly out from underneath a ledge of rock, and
+point towards the bait, then the rest of the ugly creature follows, and
+gathering itself together, darts upon the hook, for the possession of
+which half a dozen more of its fellows are already advancing, either
+swimming or by drawing themselves over the sandy bottom of the pool.
+Deep buried in the sand itself is another, a brute which may weigh ten
+or fifteen pounds, and which would take all the strength of a strong man
+to overcome were its loathsome tentacles clasped round his limbs in
+their horrid embrace. Only part of the head and the half-closed,
+tigerish eyes are visible, and even these portions are coated over with
+fine sand so as to render them almost undistinguishable from the bed in
+which it lies awaiting for some careless crab or fish to come within
+striking distance. How us boys delighted to destroy these big fellows
+when we came across one thus hidden in the sand or _d�bris_ on the
+bottom! A quick thrust of the spear through the tough, elongated head,
+a vision of whirling, outspread, red and black snaky tentacles, and then
+the thing is dragged out by main strength and dashed down upon the
+rocks, to be struck with waddies or stones until the spear can be
+withdrawn. Everything, it is said, has its use in this world, and the
+octopus is eminently useful to the Australian line fisherman, for the
+bream, trevally, flathead, jew-fish, and the noble schnapper dearly love
+its tough, white flesh, especially after the creature has been held over
+a flame for a few minutes, so that the mottled skin may be peeled off.
+
+But treacherous and murderous Thug of the Sea as he is, the octopus has
+one dreaded foe before whom he flees in terror, and compresses his body
+into the narrowest and most inaccessible cleft or endeavours to bury
+himself in the loose, soft sand--and that foe is the orange-coloured or
+sage-green rock eel. Never do you see one of these eels in the open
+water; they lie deep under the stones or twine their lithe, slippery
+bodies among the waving kelp or seaweed. Always hungry, savage-eyed, and
+vicious, they know no fear of any living thing, and seizing an octopus
+and biting off tentacle after tentacle with their closely-set,
+needle-like teeth and swallowing it whole is a matter of no more moment
+to them than the bolting of a tender young mullet or bream. In vain does
+the Sea Thug endeavour to enwrap himself round and round the body of one
+of these sinuous, scaleless sea-snakes and fasten on to it with his
+terrible cupping apparatus of suckers--the eel slips in and out and
+"wolfs" and worries his enemy without the slightest harm to itself.
+Some of them are large--especially the orange-coloured variety--three or
+four feet in length, and often one will raise his snaky head apparently
+out of solid rock and regard you steadily for a moment. Then he
+disappears. You advance cautiously to the spot and find a hole no larger
+than the circumference of an afternoon tea cup, communicating with the
+water beneath. Lower a baited hook with a strong wire snooding, and
+"Yellowskin" will open wide his jaws and swallow it without your feeling
+the slightest movement of the line. But you must be quick and strong of
+hand then, or you will never drag him forth, for slippery as he is he
+can coil his length around a projecting bit of rock and defy you for
+perhaps five or ten minutes; and then when you do succeed in tearing him
+away and pull him out with the hook buried deep in his loose, pendulous,
+wrinkled and corduroyed throat, he instantly resolves himself into a
+quivering Gordian knot, winding the line in and about his coils and
+knotting it into such knots that can never be unravelled.
+
+Here and there you will see lying buried deep in the growing coral, or
+covered with black masses of _congewoi_ such things as iron and copper
+bolts, or heavy pieces of squared timber, the relics of the many wrecks
+that have occurred on the bar--some recent, some in years long gone by.
+Out there, lying wedged in between the weed and kelp-covered boulders,
+only visible at low water, are two of the guns of the ill-fated
+_Wanderer_, a ship, like her owner, famous in the history of the
+colony. She was the property of a Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a man of flocks and
+herds and wealth, who founded a town and a great whaling station on the
+shores of Twofold Bay, where he employed some hundreds of men, bond and
+free. He was of an adventurous and restless disposition, and after
+making several voyages to the South Seas, was cruelly cut off and
+murdered by the cannibal natives of Guadalcanar in the Solomon Islands,
+in the "fifties." The captain, after beating off the savages, who,
+having killed poor Boyd on shore, made a determined attempt to capture
+the ship, set sail for Australia, and in endeavouring to cross in over
+the bar went ashore and became a total wreck. Here is a description
+written by Judge McFarland of the _Wanderer_ as she was in those days
+when Boyd dreamed a dream of founding a Republic in the South Sea
+Islands with his wild crew of Polynesians and a few white fellow
+adventurers:--
+
+"She was of 240 tons burthen; very fleet, and had a flush deck; and her
+cabins were fitted up with every possible attention to convenience, and
+with great elegance; and had she been intended as a war craft, she could
+scarcely have been more powerfully armed, for she carried four brass
+deck-guns--two six-pounders and two four-pounders--mounted on carriages
+resembling dolphins, four two-pounder rail guns--two on each side--and
+one brass twelve-pounder traversing gun (which had seen service at
+Waterloo)--in all thirteen serviceable guns. Besides these, there were
+two small, highly-ornamented guns used for firing signals, which were
+said to have been obtained from the wreck of the _Royal George_ at
+Spithead. There were also provided ample stores of round shot and grape
+for the guns, and a due proportion of small arms, boarding pikes,
+tomahawks, &c."
+
+Half a mile further on, and we are under the Signal Hill, and standing
+on one side of a wide, flat rock, through which a boat passage has been
+cut by convict hands, when first the white tents of the soldiers were
+seen on the Barrack Hill. And here, at this same spot, more than a
+hundred years ago, and thirty before the sound of the axe was first
+heard amid the forest or tallow-woods and red gum, there once landed a
+strange party of sea-worn, haggard-faced beings--six men, one woman, and
+two infant children. They were the unfortunate Bryant party--whose
+wonderful and daring voyage from Sydney to Timor in a wretched,
+ill-equipped boat, ranks second only to that of Bligh himself. For Will
+Bryant, an ex-smuggler who was leader, had heard of Bligh's voyage in
+the boat belonging to the _Bounty_; and fired with the desire to escape
+with his wife and children from the famine-stricken community on the
+shores of Port Jackson, he and his companions in servitude stole a small
+fishing-boat and boldly put to sea to face a journey of more that three
+thousand miles over an unknown and dangerous ocean. A few weeks after
+leaving Sydney they had sighted this little nook when seeking refuge
+from a fierce north-easterly gale, and here they remained for many days,
+so that the woman and children might gain strength and the seams of the
+leaking boat be payed with tallow--their only substitute for oakum.
+Then onward they sailed or rowed, for long, long weary weeks, landing
+here and there on the coast to seek for water and shell-fish, harried
+and chased by cannibal savages, suffering all the agonies that could be
+suffered on such a wild venture, until they reached Timor, only by a
+strange and unhappy fate to fall into the hands of the brutal and
+infamous Edwards of the _Pandora_ frigate, who with his wrecked ship's
+company, and the surviving and manacled mutineers of the _Bounty_, who
+had surrendered to him, soon afterwards appeared at the Dutch port.
+Bryant, the daring leader, was so fortunate as to die of fever, and so
+escaped the fate in store for his comrades. 'Tis a strange story indeed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the end of the point of brown, rugged rocks which form a natural
+breakwater to this tiny boat harbour, the water is deep, showing a pale
+transparent green at their base, and deep inpenetrable blue ten fathoms
+beyond. To-day, because it is mid-winter, and the wind blows from the
+west, the sea is clearer than ever, and far down below will be discerned
+lazily swimming to and fro great reddish-brown or bright blue groper,
+watching the dripping sides of the rock in hope that some of the active,
+gaily-hued crabs which scurry downwards as you approach may fall in--for
+the blue groper is a _gourmet_, disdaining to eat of his own tribe, and
+caring only for crabs or the larger and more luscious crayfish. Stand
+here when the tide is high and the surf is sweeping in creamy sheets
+over the lower ledges of rocks; and as the water pours off torrent-like
+from the surface and leaves them bare, you may oft behold a huge
+fish--aye, or two or three--lying kicking on its side with a young
+crayfish in its thick, fleshy jaws, calmly waiting for the next sea to
+set him afloat again. Brave fellows are these gropers--forty, fifty, up
+to seventy pounds sometimes, and dangerous fish to hook in such a place
+as this, where a false step may send a man headlong into the surf below
+with his line tangled round his feet or arms. But on such a morning as
+this one might fall overboard and come to no harm, for the sea is
+smooth, and the kelp sways but gently to the soft rise and fall of the
+water, and seldom in these cold days of June does Jack Shark cruise in
+under the lee of the rocks. It is in November, hot, sweltering November,
+when the clinking sand of the shining beach is burning to the booted
+foot, and the countless myriads of terrified sea salmon come swarming in
+over the bar on their way to spawn in the river beyond, that he and his
+fellows and the bony-snouted saw-fish rush to and fro in the shallow
+waters, driving their prey before them, and gorging as they drive, till
+the clear waters of the bar are turned into a bloodied froth. At such a
+time as this it might be bad to fall overboard, though some of the local
+youths give but little more heed to the tigers of the sea than they do
+to the accompanying drove of harmless porpoises, which join in the
+onslaught on the hapless salmon.
+
+A mile eastward from the shore there rises stark and clear a great
+dome-shaped rock, the haunt and resting-place of thousands of
+snow-white gulls and brown-plumaged boobies. The breeding-place of the
+former is within rifle-shot--over there on that long stretch of
+banked-up sand on the north side of the bar, where, amid the shelter of
+the coarse, tufted grass the delicate, graceful creatures will sit three
+months hence on their fragile white and purple-splashed eggs. The
+boobies are but visitors, for their breeding-places are on the bleak,
+savage islands far to the south, amid the snows and storms of black
+Antarctic seas. But here they dwell together, in unison with the gulls,
+and were the wind not westerly you could hear their shrill cries and
+hoarse croaking as they wheel and eddy and circle above the lonely rock,
+on the highest pinnacle of which a great fish-eagle, with neck thrown
+back upon his shoulders and eyes fixed eastward to the sun, stands
+oblivious of their clamour, as creatures beneath his notice.
+
+Once round the southern side of the Signal Hill the noise of the bar is
+lost. Between the hill and the next point--a wild, stern-looking
+precipice of black-trap rock--there lies a half a mile or more of
+shingly strand, just such as you would see at Pevensey Bay or Deal, but
+backed up at high-water mark with piles of drift timber--great dead
+trees that have floated from the far northern rivers, their mighty
+branches and netted roots bleached white by the sun and wind of many
+years, and smelling sweet of the salty sea air. Mingled with the lighter
+bits of driftwood and heaps of seaweed are the shells of hundreds of
+crayfish--some of the largest are newly cast up by the sea, and the
+carapace is yellow and blue; others are burnt red by exposure to the
+sun; while almost at every step you crush into the thin backs and
+armoured tails of young ones about a foot in length, the flesh of which,
+by some mysterious process of nature, has vanished, leaving the skin,
+muscles, and beautiful fan-like tail just as fresh as if the crustaceans
+were alive. Just here, out among those kelp-covered rocks, you may, on a
+moonlight night, catch as many crayfish as you wish--three of them will
+be as much as any one would care to carry a mile, for a large,
+full-grown "lobster," as they are called locally, will weigh a good ten
+pounds.
+
+Once round the precipice we come to a new phase of coastal scenery. From
+the high land above us green scrub-covered spur after spur shoots
+downward to the shore, enclosing numerous little beaches of coarse sand
+and many coloured spiral shells--"Reddies" we boys called them--with
+here and there a rare and beautiful cowrie of banded jet black and
+pearly white. The sea-wall of rock has here but few pools, being split
+up into long, deep, and narrow chasms, into which the gentle ocean swell
+comes with strange gurglings and hissings, and groan-like sounds, and
+tiny jets of spray spout up from hundreds of air-holes through the
+hollow crust of rock. Here for the first time since the town was left,
+are heard the cries of land birds; for in the wild apple and rugged
+honeysuckle trees which grow on the rich, red soil of the spurs they are
+there in plenty--crocketts, king parrots, leatherheads, "butcher" and
+"bell" birds, and the beautiful bronze-wing pigeon--while deep within
+the silent gullies you constantly hear the little black scrub wallabies
+leaping through the undergrowth and fallen leaves, to hide in still
+darker forest recesses above.
+
+There are snakes here, too. Everywhere their sinuous tracks are visible
+on the sand, criss-crossing with the more defined scratchy markings of
+those of iguanas. The latter we know come down to carry off any dead
+fish cast ashore by the waves, or to seize any live ones which may be
+imprisoned in a shallow pool; but what brings the deadly brown and black
+snakes down to the edge of _salt_ water at night time?
+
+Point after point, tiny bay after bay, and then we come to a wider
+expanse of clear, stoneless beach, at the farther end of which a huge
+boulder of jagged, yellow rock, covered on the summit with a thick
+mantle of a pale green, fleshly-leaved creeper, bearing a pink flower.
+It stands in a deep pool about a hundred yards in circumference, and as
+like as not we shall find the surface of the water covered by thousands
+of green-backed, red-billed garfish and silvery mullet, whose very
+numbers prevent them from escaping. Scores of them leap out upon the
+sand, and lie there with panting gill and flapping tail. It is a great
+place for us boys, for here at low tides in the winter we strip off, and
+with naked hands catch the mullet and gars and silvery-sided trumpeters,
+and throw them out on the beach, to be grilled later on over a fire of
+glowing honeysuckle cobs, and eaten without salt. What boy does care
+about such a thing as salt at such times, when his eye is bright and his
+skin glows with the flush of health, and the soft murmuring of the sea
+is mingling in his ears with the thrilling call of the birds, and the
+rustling hum of the bush; and the yellow sun shines down from a glorious
+sky of cloudless blue, and dries the sand upon his naked feet; and the
+very joy of being alive, and away from school, is happiness enough in
+itself!
+
+For here, by rock and pool on this lonely Austral beach, it is good and
+sweet for man or boy to be, and, if but in utter idleness, to watch and
+listen--and think.
+
+
+
+
+_Solepa_
+
+
+The last strokes of the bell for evening service had scarce died away
+when I heard a footstep on the pebbly path, and old P�k�a, staff in hand
+and pipe dangling from his pendulous ear-lobe, walked quietly up the
+steps and sat down cross-legged on the verandah. All my own people had
+gone to church and the house was very quiet.
+
+"Good evening, P�k�a," I said in English, "how are you, old man?"
+
+A smile lit up the brown, old, wrinkled face as he heard my voice--for I
+was lying down in the sitting-room, smoking my after-supper pipe--as he
+answered in the island dialect that he was well, but that his house was
+in darkness and he, being lonely, had come over to sit with me awhile.
+
+"That is well, P�k�a, for I too am lonely, and who so good as thee to
+talk with when the mind is heavy and the days are long, and no sail
+cometh up from the sea-rim? Come, sit here within the doorway, for the
+night wind is chill; and fill thy pipe."
+
+He came inside as I rose and turned up the lamp so that its light shone
+full on his bald, bronzed head and deeply tatooed arms and shoulders.
+Laying down his polished staff of _temana_ wood, he came over to me,
+placed his hand on my arm, patted it gently, and then his kindly old
+eyes sought mine.
+
+"Be not dull of heart, _taka taina_.[1] A ship will soon come--it may be
+to-morrow; it must be soon; for twice have I heard the cocks crow at
+midnight since I was last here, three days ago. And when the cocks crow
+at night-time a ship is near."
+
+"May it be so, P�k�a, for I am weary of waiting. Ten months have come
+and gone since I first put foot on this land of Nukufetau, and a ship
+was to have come here in four."
+
+He filled his pipe, then drawing a small mat near my lounge, he squatted
+on the floor, and we smoked in silence, listening to the gentle lapping
+of the lagoon waters upon the inner beach and the beating, never-ceasing
+hum of the surf on the reef beyond. Overhead the branches of the palms
+swayed and rustled to the night-breeze.
+
+Presently, as I turned to look seaward, I caught the old man's dark eyes
+fixed upon my face, and in them I read a sympathy that at that time and
+place was grateful to me.
+
+"Six months is long for one who waits, P�k�a," I said. "I came here but
+to stay four months and trade for copra; then the ship was to call and
+take me to Ponap�, in the far north-west. And Ponap� is a great land to
+such a man as me."
+
+"_Etonu! Etonu!_ I know it. Thrice have I been there when I sailed in
+the whaleships. A great land truly, like the island called Juan
+Fernandez, of which I have told thee, with high mountains green to the
+summits with trees, and deep, dark valleys wherein the sound of the sea
+is never heard but when the surf beats hard upon the reef. Ah! a fine
+land--better than this poor _motu_, which is as but a ring of sand set
+in the midst of the deep sea. Would that I were young to go there with
+thee! Tell me, dost know the two small, high islands in the _ava_[2]
+which is called Jakoits? Hast seen the graves of two white men there?"
+
+"I know the islands well; but I have never seen the graves of any white
+men there. Who were they, and when did they die?"
+
+"Ah, I am a foolish old man. I forget how old I am. Perhaps, when thou
+wert a child in thy mother's arms, the graves stood up out of the
+greensward at the foot of the high cliff which faces to the south. Tell
+me, is there not a high wall of rock a little way back from the landing
+beach?... Aye!... that is the place ... and the bones of the men are
+there, though now great trees may grow over the place. They were both
+good men--good to look at, tall and strong; and they fought and died
+there just under the cliff. I saw them die, for I was there with the
+captain of my ship. We, and others with us, saw it all."
+
+"Who were they, P�k�a, and how came they to fight?"
+
+"One was a trader, whose name was Preston; he lived on the mainland of
+Ponap�, where he had a great house and oil store and many servants. The
+name of the other man was Frank. They fought because of a woman."
+
+"Tell me the story, P�k�a. Thou hast seen many lands and many strange
+things. And when ye come and sit and talk to me the dulness goeth away
+from me and I no longer think of the ship; for of all the people on this
+_motu_, to thee and Temana my servant alone do I talk freely. And Temana
+is now at church."
+
+The old man chuckled. "Aye, he is at church because Malepa, his wife, is
+so jealous of him that she fears to leave him alone. Better would it
+please him to be sitting here with us."
+
+I drew the mat curtain across the sitting-room window so that we could
+not be seen by prying eyes, and put two cups, a gourd of water, and some
+brandy on the table. Except my own man, Temana, the rest of the natives
+were intensely jealous of the poor old ex-sailor and wanderer in many
+lands, and they very much resented his frequent visits to me--partly on
+account of the occasional glass of grog which I gave him, and partly
+because he was suspected of still being a _tagata po-uriuri, i.e._, a
+heathen. This, however, he vigorously denied, and though Mar�ko, the
+Samoan teacher, was a kind-hearted and tolerant man for a native
+minister, the deacons delighted in persecuting and harassing the ancient
+upon every possible opportunity, and upon one pretext or another had
+succeeded in robbing him of his land and dividing it among his
+relatives; so that now in his extreme old age he was dependent upon one
+of his daughters, a woman who herself must have been past sixty.
+
+I poured some brandy into the cups; we clicked them together and said,
+"May you be lucky" to each other. Then he told me of Solepa.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There were many whaleships came to anchor in the three harbours of
+Ponap� in those days. They came there for wood and water and fresh
+provisions, before they sailed to the cold, icy seas of the south. I was
+then a boat-steerer in an English ship--a good and lucky ship with a
+good captain. When we came to Ponap� we found there six other
+whaleships, all anchored close together under the shelter of the two
+islets. All the captains were friends, and the few white men who lived
+on shore were friends with them, and every night there was much singing
+and dancing on board the ships, for, as was the custom, every one on
+board had been given a Ponap� girl for wife as long as his ship stayed
+there; and sometimes a ship would be there a long time--a month perhaps.
+
+"The trader who lived in the big house was one of the first to come on
+board our ship; for the captain and he were good friends. They talked
+together on the poop deck, and I heard the trader say that he had been
+away to Honolulu for nearly a year and had brought back with him a young
+wife.
+
+"'Good,' said my captain, 'to-night I shall come ashore and drink
+_manuia!_[3] to ye both.'
+
+"The trader was pleased, and said that some of the other captains could
+come also, and that he had sent a letter to the other trader, Frank, who
+lived on the other side of the island, bidding him to come and greet the
+new wife. At these words the face of Stacey--that was my captain's name,
+became dark, and he said--
+
+"'You are foolish. Such a man as he is, is better away from thy
+house--and thy wife. He is a _manaia_, an _ulavale_[4]. Take heed of my
+words and have no dealings with him.'
+
+"But the man Preston only laughed. He was a fool in this though he was
+so clever in many other things. He was a big man, broad in the shoulders
+with the bright eye and the merry laugh of a boy. He had been a sailor,
+but had wearied of the life, and so he bought land in Ponap� and became
+a trader. He was a fair-dealing man with the people there, and so in
+three or four years he became rich, and bought more land and built a
+schooner which he sent away to far distant islands to trade for
+pearl-shell and _loli_ (beche-de-mer). Then it was that he went to
+Honolulu and came back with a wife.
+
+"That day ere it became dark I went on shore with my captain; some of
+the other captains went with us. The white man met them on the beach,
+surrounded by many of his servants, male and female. Some were of
+Ponap�, some from Tahiti, some from Oahu, and some from the place which
+you call Savage Island and we call Niu�. As soon as the captains had
+stepped out upon the beach and I had bidden the four sailors who were
+with me to push off to return to the ship, the trader, seeing the
+tatooing on my arms, gave a shout.
+
+"'Ho,' he cried, turning to my captain, 'whence comes that boat-steerer
+of thine? By the markings on his arms and chest he should be from the
+isles of the Tokelau.'
+
+"My captain laughed. 'He comes from near there. He is of Nukufetau.'
+
+"Then let him stay on shore to-night, for there are here with me a man
+and a woman from Nanomaga; they can talk together. And my wife Solepa,
+too, will be well pleased to see him, for her mother was a Samoan, and
+this man can talk to her in her mother's tongue.'
+
+"'So I too went up to the house with the white men, but would not enter
+with them, for I was stripped to the waist and could not go into the
+presence of the lady. Presently the man and woman from Nanomaga sought
+me out and embraced me and made much of me and took me into another part
+of the house, where I waited till one of my shipmates returned from the
+ship bringing my jumper and trousers of white duck and a new Panama hat.
+Ta|pa|! I was a fine-looking man in those days, and women looked at
+me from the corner of the eye. And now--look at me now! I am like a
+blind fish which is swept hither and thither by the current against the
+rocks and sandbanks. Give me some more grog, dear friend; when I talk of
+the days of my youth my belly yearns for it, and I am not ashamed to
+beg.
+
+"Presently, after I had dressed myself, I was taken by the Nanomea man
+into the big room where Solepa, the white man's wife, was sitting with
+the white men. She came to me and took my hand, and said to me in Samoan
+_'Talofa, P�k�a, e ma|lolo| ea oe?'_[5] and my heart was glad; for
+it was long since I heard any one speak in a tongue which is akin to
+mine own.... Was she beautiful? you ask. Ta|pa|! All women are
+beautiful when they are young, and their eyes are full and clear and
+their voices are soft and their bosoms are round and smooth! All I can
+remember of her is that she was very young, with a white, fair skin, and
+dressed like the _papalagi_[6] women I have seen in Peretania and
+Ita|lia and in Chili and in Sydney.
+
+"As I stood before her, hat in hand and with my eyes looking downward,
+which is proper and correct for a modest man to do when a high lady
+speaks to him before many people, a white man who had been sitting at
+the far end of the room came over to me and said some words of greeting
+to me. This was Franka[7]--he whom my captain said was a _manaia_. He
+was better clothed than any other of the white men, and was proud and
+overbearing in his manner. He had brought with him more than a score of
+young Ponap� men, all of whom carried rifles and had cutlasses strapped
+to their waists. This was done to show the people of Jakoits that he was
+as great a man as Preston, whom he hated, as you will see. But Preston
+had naught for him but good words, and when he saw the armed men he bade
+them welcome and set aside a house for them to sleep in, and his
+servants brought them many baskets of cooked food--taro and yams, and
+fish, turtle, and pork. All this I saw whilst I was in the big room.
+
+"After I had spoken with the lady Solepa I returned to where the man
+from Nanomaga and his wife were awaiting me. They pressed me to eat and
+drink, and by and by sent for a young girl to make kava. Ta|pa|!
+that kava of Ponap�! It is not made there as it is in Samoa--where the
+young men and women chew the dried root and mix it in a wooden _tanoa_
+(bowl); there the green root is crushed up in a hollowed stone and but
+little water is added, so that it is strong, very strong, and one is
+soon made drunk.
+
+"The girl who made the kava for us was named Sipi. She had eyes like the
+stars when they are shining upon a deep mountain pool, and round her
+smooth forehead was bound a circlet of yellow pandanus leaf worked with
+beads of many colours and fringed with red parrakeet feathers; about her
+waist were two fine mats, and her bosom and hands were stained with
+turmeric. I sat and watched her beating the kava, and as her right arm
+rose and fell her short, black wavy hair danced about her cheeks and hid
+the red mouth and white teeth when she smiled at me. And she smiled at
+me very often, and the man and woman beside me laughed when they saw me
+regard her so intently, and asked me was it in my mind to have her for
+my wife.
+
+"I did not answer at once, for I knew that if I ran away from the ship
+for the sake of this girl I would be doing a foolish thing, for I had
+money coming to me when the ship was _oti folau_ (paid off). But, as I
+pondered, the girl bent forward and again her eyes smiled at me through
+her hair; and then it was I saw that on her head there was a narrow
+shaven strip from the crown backward. Now, in Tokelau, this fashion is
+called _tu tagita_, and showeth that a girl is in her virginity. When I
+saw this I was pleased, but to make sure I said to my friends, 'Her hair
+is _tu tagita_. Is she a virgin?'
+
+"The woman of Nanomaga laughed loudly at this and pinched my hand, then
+she translated my words to the girl who looked into my face and laughed
+too, shaking her head as she put one hand over her eyes--
+
+"'Nay, nay, O stranger,' she said, 'I am no virgin; neither am I a
+harlot. I am respectable, and my father and mother have land. I do not
+go to the ships.' Then she tossed her hair back from her face and began
+to beat the kava again.
+
+"Now, this girl pleased me greatly, for there were no twists in her
+tongue; so, when the kava-drinking was finished I made her sit beside
+me, and the Nanomaga woman told her I would run away from the ship if
+she would be my wife. She put her face to my shoulder, and then took
+the circlet from her forehead and bound it round my bared arm, and I
+gave her a silver ring which I wore on my little finger. Then, together
+with the Nanomaga man and his wife, we made our plans.... Ah! she was a
+fine girl. For nearly a year was she wife to me until she sickened and
+died of the _meisake elo_[8] which was brought to Ponap� by the
+missionary ship from Honolulu.
+
+"So the girl and I made our plans, and my friends promised to hide me
+when the time came for me to run away. We sat long into the night, and I
+heard much of the man called Franka and of the jealousy he bore to
+Preston. He was jealous of him because of two reasons; one was that he
+possessed such a fine house and so much land and a schooner, and the
+other was that the people of Jakoits paid him the same respect as they
+paid one of their high chiefs. So that was why Franka hated him. His
+heart was full of hatred, and sometimes when he was drunk in his own
+house at Ro|an Kiti he would boast to the natives that he would one
+day show them that he was a better man than Preston. Sometimes his
+drunken boastings were brought to the ears of Preston, who only laughed
+and took no heed, and always gave him the good word when they met, which
+was but seldom, for Jakoits and Kiti are far apart, and there was bad
+blood between the people of the two places. And then--so the girl Sipi
+afterwards told me--Franka was a lover of grog and a stealer of women,
+and kept a noisy house and made much trouble, and so Preston went not
+near him, for he was a quiet man and no drinker, and hated dissension.
+And, besides this, Franka took part in the wars of the Kiti people, and
+went about with a following of armed men, and such money as he made in
+trading he spent in muskets and powder and ball; for all this Preston
+had no liking, and one day he said to Franka, 'Be warned, this fighting
+and slaying is wrong; it is not correct for a white man to enter into
+these wars; you are doing wrong, and some day you will be killed.' Now
+these were good words, but of what use are good words to an evil heart?
+
+"So we pair sat talking and smoking, and the girl Sipi made us more
+kava, and then again sat by my side and leant her face against my
+shoulder, and presently we heard the sounds of music and singing from
+the big house. We went outside to see and listen, and saw that Preston
+was playing on a _pese laakau_[9] and Solepa and the captain of my ship
+were dancing together--like as white people dance--and two of the other
+captains were also dancing in the same fashion. All round the room were
+seated many of the high chiefs of Ponap� with their wives, dressed very
+finely, and at one end of the room stood a long table covered with a
+white cloth, on which was laid food of all kinds and wine and grog to
+drink--just as you would see in your own country when a rich man gives a
+feast. Presently as we looked, we saw Franka walk into the room from a
+side door and look about. His face was flushed, and he staggered
+slightly in his steps. He went over to the table and poured out some
+grog, and then beckoned to Preston to come and drink with him, but
+Preston smiled and shook his head. How could he go when he was making
+the music? Then Franka struck his clenched fist on the table in anger,
+and went over to Preston, just as the dancers had stopped.
+
+"'Why will ye not drink with me?' he said in a loud voice so that all
+heard him. 'Art thou too great a man to drink with me again?'
+
+"'Nay,' answered the other jestingly and taking no heed of Franka's rude
+voice and angry eyes, 'not so great that I cannot drink with all my
+friends tonight, be they white or brown,' and so saying he bade every
+one in the room come to the great table with him and drink _manuia_ to
+him and his young wife.
+
+"So the nine white men--Preston, and Franka, and the seven whaleship
+captains, and Nanakin, the head chief of Ponap�, and many other lesser
+chiefs, all gathered together around the table and filled their glasses
+and drank _manuia_ to the bride, who sat on a chair in the centre of the
+room surrounded by the chiefs' wives, and smiled and bowed when my
+captain called her name and raised his glass towards her. Then after
+this he again took up the _pese laakau_ and began to play, and my
+captain and Solepa danced again. Suddenly Franka pushed his way through
+the others and rudely placed his hand on her arm.
+
+"'Come,' he said, 'leave this fellow and dance with me.'
+
+"She cried out in terror, and then silence fell upon all as my captain
+withdrew his right arm from her waist and struck Franka on the mouth; it
+was a strong blow, and Franka staggered backwards and then fell near to
+the open door. As he rose to his feet again my captain came up to him
+and bade him leave quickly. 'We want no drunken bullies here,' he said,
+and at that moment Franka drew a pistol and pointed it at his chest. I
+leapt upon him and as we struggled together the pistol went off, but the
+bullet hurt no one.
+
+"Then there was a great commotion, and my captain and Preston ran to my
+aid and seized Franka. They dragged him out of the room, and with words
+of scorn and contempt threw him out amongst his own people who were
+gathered together outside the house, with their muskets in their hands.
+But already Nanakin and his chiefs had summoned their fighting men; they
+came running towards us from all directions, and surrounding Franka and
+his men, drove them away and bade them beware of ever returning to
+Jakoits.
+
+"When they had gone, my captain called me to him, and, turning to the
+other white men, said, 'This man hath saved my life. He hath a brave
+heart. I shall do much for him in the time to come.' Then he and the
+others all shook my hand and praised me, and I was silent and said
+nothing, for I was ashamed to think I was about to run away from such a
+good captain.
+
+"In the morning we went back to the ship, and the boats were then sent
+away to fill and bring off casks of water. Every time my boat went I
+took something with me; tobacco and clothing and other things which I
+had in my sea chest. Sipi and some other girls met us at the watering
+place, and they took these from me and put them in a place of safety.
+That afternoon as the boats were about to leave the shore for the last
+time, towing the casks, I slipped into the forest which grew very
+densely on both sides of the little river, and ran till I came to the
+spot where Sipi was awaiting me. Then together we went inland towards
+the mountains and kept on walking till nightfall. That night we slept in
+the forest; we were afraid to make a fire lest it should be seen by some
+of Nanakin's people and betray us, for I knew that my captain would
+cause a great search to be made for me. When dawn came we again set out
+and went on steadily till we came to the summit of the range of
+mountains which divides the island. There was a clear space on the side
+of the mountain; a great village had once stood there, so Sipi told me,
+but all those who had dwelt there had long since died, and their ghosts
+could be heard flitting to and fro at night time. Far below us we could
+see the blue sea, and the long waving line of reef with the surf beating
+upon it, and within, anchored in the green water, were the seven ships
+and Preston's schooner.
+
+"All that day and the next the girl and I worked at building a little
+house for us to live in until the ships had gone. We had no fear of any
+one seeking us out in that place, for it had a bad name and none but
+travelling parties from Ro|an Kiti ever passed there. Sipi had brought
+with her a basket of cooked food; in the deserted plantations we found
+plenty of bananas and yams, and in the stream at the foot of the valley
+we caught many small fish. Four days went by, and then one morning we
+saw the ships set their sails and go to sea. We watched them till they
+touched the sky rim and disappeared; then we went back to Jakoits.
+
+"The white man and Solepa were sitting under the shade of a tree in
+front of their house. I went boldly up to him and asked him to give me
+work to do. At first he was angry, for he and my captain were great
+friends, and said he would have naught to do with me. Why did I run away
+from such a good man and such a good ship? There were too many men like
+me, he said, in Ponap�, who had run away so that they might do naught
+but wander from village to village and eat and drink and sleep. Then
+again he asked why I had run away.
+
+"'Because of her,' I said, pointing to the girl Sipi, who was sitting at
+the gate with her face covered with the corner of her mat. 'But I am no
+_tafao vale_.[10] I am a true man. Give me work on thy ship.'
+
+"He thought a little while, then he and Solepa talked together, and
+Solepa bade Sipi come near so that she might talk to her. Presently he
+said to me that I had done a foolish thing to run away for the sake of
+the girl when I had money coming to me and when the captain's heart was
+filled with friendship towards me for turning aside Franka's pistol.
+
+"I bent my head, for I was ashamed. Then I said, 'I care not for the
+money I have lost, but I am eaten up with shame for running away, for my
+captain was a good captain to me.'
+
+"This pleased him, for he smiled and said, 'I will try thee. I will make
+thee boatswain of the schooner, and this girl here shall be servant to
+my wife.'
+
+"So Sipi became servant to Solepa, and I was sent on board the schooner
+to help prepare her for sea. My new captain gave us a house to live in,
+and every night I came on shore. Ah, those were brave times, and Preston
+made much of me when he found that I was a true man and did my work
+well, and would stand no saucy words nor black looks from those of the
+schooner's crew who thought that the boatswain should be a white man.
+
+"Ten days after the whaleships had sailed, the schooner was ready for
+sea. We were to sail to the westward isles to trade for oil and
+tortoiseshell, and then go to China, where Preston thought to sell his
+cargo. On the eve of the day on which we were to leave, the mate, who
+was an old and stupid Siamani,[11] went ashore to my master's house, and
+I was left in charge of the schooner. Sipi, my wife, was with me, and we
+sat together in the stern of the ship, smoking our _sului_ (cigarettes)
+and talking of the time when I should return and buy a piece of land
+from her father's people, on which I should build a new house. There
+were six native sailors on board, and these, as the night drew on,
+spread their mats on the fore deck and went to sleep. Then Sipi and I
+went into the cabin, which was on deck, and we too slept.
+
+"How long we had slumbered I cannot tell, but suddenly we were aroused
+by the sound of a great clamour on deck and the groans and cries of
+dying men, and then ere we were well awakened the cabin door was opened
+and Solepa was thrust inside. Then the door was quickly closed and
+fastened on the outside, and I heard Franka's voice calling out orders
+to hoist sails and slip the cable.
+
+"There was a lamp burning dimly in the cabin, and Sipi and I ran to the
+aid of Solepa, who lay prone upon the floor as if dead. Her dress was
+torn, and her hands and arms were scratched and bleeding, so that Sipi
+wept as she leant over her and put water to her lips. In a little while
+she opened her eyes, and when she saw us a great sob broke from her
+bosom and she caught my hand in hers and tried to speak.
+
+"Now, grog is a good thing. It is good for a weak, panting woman when
+her strength is gone and her soul is terrified, and it is good for an
+old man who is despised by his relations because he is bitten with
+poverty. There was grog in a wicker jar in the cabin. I gave her some in
+a glass, and then as the dog Franka, whose soul and body are now in
+hell, was getting the schooner under way, she told me that while she and
+Preston were asleep the house was surrounded by a hundred or more of
+men from Ro|an Kiti, led by Franka. They burst in suddenly, and Franka
+and some others rushed into their sleeping-room and she was torn away
+from her husband and carried down to the beach.
+
+"'Is thy husband dead?' I asked.
+
+"'I cannot tell,' she said in a weak voice. 'I heard some shots fired
+and saw him struggling with Franka's men. That is all I know. If he is
+dead then shall I die too. Give me a knife, so that I may die.'
+
+"As she spoke the schooner began to move, and again we heard Franka's
+voice calling out in English to some one to go forward and con the ship
+whilst he steered, for the night was dark and he, clever stealer of
+women as he was, did not know the passage out through the reef, and
+trusted to those with him who knew but little more. Then something came
+into my mind, and I took Solepa's hand in mine.
+
+"'I will save thee from this pig Franka,' I said quickly, 'he shall
+never take thee away. Sit ye here with Sipi, and when ye hear the
+schooner strike, spring ye both into the sea and swim towards the two
+islands which are near.'
+
+"In the centre of the deck cabin was a hatch which led into the hold.
+There was no deck between, for the vessel was but small. I took my knife
+from the sheath and then lifted the hatch, descended, and crawled
+forward in the darkness to the fore hatch, up which I crept very
+carefully, for I had much in my mind. I saw a man standing up, holding
+on to the fore stay. He was calling out to Franka every now and then,
+telling him how to steer. I sprang up behind him, and as I drove my
+knife into his back with my left hand, I struck him with my right on his
+neck and he fell overboard. He was a white man, I think for when my
+knife went into his back he called out 'Oh Christ!' But then many native
+men who have mixed with white people call out 'Oh, Christ,' just like
+white men when they are drunk. Anyway, it does not matter now.
+
+"But as I struck my knife into him, I called out in English to put the
+helm hard down, for I saw that the schooner was very near the reef on
+the starboard hand. Franka, who was at the wheel, at once obeyed and was
+fooled, for the schooner, which was now leaping and singing to the
+strong night wind from the mountains smote suddenly upon the coral reef
+with a noise like the felling of a great forest tree, and began to grind
+and tear her timbers.
+
+"Almost as she struck Solepa and Sipi stood by me, and together we
+sprang overboard into the white surf ... Give me some more grog, dear
+friend of my heart. I am no boaster, nor am I a liar; but when I think
+of that swim to the shore through the rolling seas with those two women,
+my belly cleaves to my backbone and I become faint.... For the current
+was against us, and neither Sipi nor Solepa were good swimmers, and many
+times had we to clutch hold of the jagged coral, which tore our skins so
+that our blood ran out freely, and had the sharks come to us then I
+would not be here with thee to-night drinking this, thy good sweet grog
+which thou givest me out of thy kind heart. Ta|pa|! When I look
+into thy face and see thy kind eyes, I am young again. I love thee, not
+alone because thou hast been kind to me in my poverty and paid the fines
+of my granddaughter when she hath committed adultery with the young men
+of the village, but because thou hast seen many lands and have upheld me
+before the teacher, who is a circumcised but yet untatooed dog of a
+Samoan. A man who is not tatooed is no better than a woman. He is a male
+harlot and should be despised. He is only fit to associate with women,
+and has no right to beget children....
+
+"We three swam to the shore, and when the dawn came we saw that the
+schooner stood high and dry on the reef and that Franka and his men were
+trying to float her by throwing overboard the iron ballast and putting a
+kedge anchor out upon the lee side of the reef. And at the same time we
+saw three boats put off from the mainland. These boats were all painted
+white, and when I saw them I said to Solepa, 'Be of good heart. Thy
+husband is not dead, for here are three of his boats coming. He is not
+dead. He is coming to seek thee.'"
+
+"The three boats came quickly towards the schooner, but ere they reached
+her Franka and those with him got into the boats in which they had
+boarded the vessel, and then we saw smoke arise from the bow and
+stern.... They had set fire to the ship. They were cowards. Fire is a
+great help to cowards, because in the glare and dazzling light of
+burning houses or ships, when the thunder of cannons and the rattle of
+rifles is heard, they can run about and kill people.... I have seen
+these things done in Chili.... I have seen men who would not stand and
+fight on board ship run away on shore and slay women and children in
+their fury and cowardice. No, they were not Englishmen; they were
+Spaniolas. But the officers were Englishmen and Germans. _They_ did not
+run away, they were killed. Brave men get killed and cowards live. I am
+no coward though I am still alive. It is quite proper that I should
+live, for I never ran away when there was fighting to be done. I have
+only been a fool because of my love for women. No one could say I was a
+coward, and no one can say I am a fool, because I am too old now to be a
+fool.
+
+"As Franka and those with him left the burning schooner and rowed
+towards the islands, the three boats from the shore changed their course
+and followed him. Franka and his men were the first to reach the land,
+and they quickly ran up the beach and crouched behind the bushes which
+grew at high-water mark. They all had guns, and Sipi and Solepa and I
+saw them waiting to shoot. We were hiding amid the roots of a great
+banyan tree, and could see well. As the boats drew near Solepa watched
+them eagerly, and then began to weep and laugh at the same time when she
+saw her husband Preston was steering the one which led. She was a good
+woman. She loved her husband. I was pleased with her, and told her to be
+of good cheer, for I was sure that Preston and his people would kill
+Franka and those with him, for as they rowed they made no noise. No one
+shouted nor challenged; they came on and on, and the white man Preston
+stood up with the steer oar in his hand, and his face was as a stone in
+which was set eyes of fire. When his boat was within twenty fathoms of
+the beach the rowers ceased, and he held up his hand to those who
+awaited his coming.
+
+"'Listen to me, men of Ro|an Kiti. We are as three to one of ye, and
+ye are caught in a trap. Death is in my mouth if I speak the word. Tell
+me, is my wife Solepa alive?'
+
+"No one answered, but suddenly Franka stepped out from behind the bushes
+and pointed his rifle at him, and was about to pull the trigger when a
+young man of his party who was of good heart seized him by the arm, and
+cried out 'twas a coward's act; then two or three followed him, and
+together they bore Franka down upon the sand; and one of them cried out
+to Preston--
+
+"'This is a wrong business. We were led astray by this man. We are no
+cowards, and have no ill-will to thee. Thy wife is alive. She swam
+ashore with two others when the ship struck. Are we dead men?'
+
+"Then, ere Preston could answer, Solepa leapt out from beneath the
+banyan tree and ran through the men of Ro|an Kiti towards the beach,
+and cried--
+
+"'Oh, my husband, for the love of God let no blood be shed! I am well
+and unharmed. Spare these people and spare even this man Franka, for he
+is mad!'
+
+"Then Preston leapt out of the boat and put his arms around her waist
+and kissed her, and then put her aside, and called to every one around
+him--
+
+"'These are my words,' he said. 'I am a man of peace, but this man
+Franka is a robber and a dog, and hath stolen upon me in the night and
+slain my people, and his hands are reddened with blood. And he hath put
+foul dishonour on me by stealing Solepa my wife, and carrying her away
+from my house as if she were a slave or a harlot. And there is no room
+here for such a man to live unless he be a better man than I. But I am
+no murderer. So stand aside all! Let him rise and rest awhile, and then
+shall we two fight, man to man. Either he or I must die.'
+
+"Then many men of both sides came to him and said, 'Let this thing be
+finished. You are a strong man. Take this robber and slay him as you
+would slay a pig.' But he put them aside, and said he would fight him
+man to man, as Englishmen fought.
+
+"So when Franka was rested two cutlasses were brought, and the two men
+stood face to face on the sand. I kept close to Franka, for I meant to
+stab him if I could, but Preston angrily bade me stand back. Then the
+two crossed their swords together and began to fight. It was a great
+fight, but it did not last long, for Preston soon ran his sword through
+Franka's chest. I saw it come out through his back. But as he fell and
+Preston bent over him he thrust his cutlass into Preston's stomach and
+worked it to and fro. Then Preston fell on him, and they died together.
+
+"There was no more bloodshed. Solepa and Sipi and I dressed the dead man
+in his best clothes, and the Ro|an Kiti men dressed Franka in his
+best clothes, and a great funeral feast was made, and we buried them
+together on the little island. And Solepa went back again to Honolulu in
+a whaleship. She was young and fair, and should have soon found another
+husband. I do not know. But Sipi was a fine wife to me."
+
+
+
+
+_The Fisher Folk of Nukufetau_
+
+Early one morning, about a week after I had settled down on Nukufetau as
+a trader, I opened my chest of fishing-gear and began to overhaul it. In
+a few minutes I was surrounded by an eager and interested group of
+natives, who examined everything with the greatest curiosity.
+
+Now for the preceding twelve months I had been living on the little
+island of Nanomaga, a day's sail from Nukufetau; and between Nanomaga
+and Nukufetau there was a great bitterness of long standing--the
+Nanomagans claimed to be the most daring canoe-men and expert fishermen
+in all the eight isles of the Ellice Group, and the people of Nukufetau
+resented the claim strongly. The feeling had been accentuated by my good
+friend the Samoan teacher on Nanomaga, himself an ardent fisherman,
+writing to his brother minister on Nukufetau and informing him that
+although I was not a high-class Christian I was all right in all other
+respects, and a good fisherman--"all that he did not know we have taught
+him, therefore," he added slyly, "let your young men watch him so that
+they may learn how to fish in deep and rough water, such as ours."
+These remarks were of course duly made public, and caused much
+indignation, neither the minister nor his flock liking the gibe about
+the deep, rough water; also the insinuation that anything about fishing
+was to be learnt from the new white man was annoying and uncalled for.
+
+I must here mention that the natives of De Peyster's Island (Nukufetau)
+caught all the fish they wanted in the smooth and spacious waters of the
+lagoon, and were not fond of venturing outside the barrier reef, except
+during the bonito season, or when the sea was very calm at night, to
+catch flying-fish. Then, too, the currents outside the reef were swift
+and dangerous, and the canoes had either to be carried a long distance
+over the coral or paddled a couple of miles across the lagoon to the
+ship passage before the open sea was gained. Hudson's Island
+(Nanomaga)--a tiny spot less than four miles in circumference--had no
+lagoon, and all fishing was done in the deep water of the ocean. The
+natives were used to launching their canoes, year in and year out, to
+face the wildest surf, and were, in consequence, wonderfully expert, and
+in the history of the island there is only one instance of a man having
+been drowned. The De Peyster people, by reason of the advantage of their
+placid lagoon, had no reason to risk their lives in the surf in this
+manner, and so, naturally enough, they were not nearly as skilful in the
+management of their frail canoes when they had to face a sweeping sea on
+the outer or ocean reef.
+
+Just as I was placing some coils of heavy, deep-sea lines upon the
+matted floor, Mar�ko the native teacher, fat, jovial, and
+bubbling-voiced, entered in a great hurry, and hardly giving himself
+time to shake hands with me, announced in a tone of triumph, that a body
+of _atuli_ (baby bonito) had just entered the passage and were making
+their way up the lagoon.
+
+In less than ten seconds every man, woman, and child on the island,
+except the teacher and myself, were agog with excitement and bawling and
+shouting as they rushed to the beach to launch and man the canoes, the
+advent of the _atuli_ having been expected for some days. In nearly all
+the equatorial islands of the Pacific these beautiful little fish make
+their appearance every year almost to a day, with unvarying regularity.
+They remain in the smooth waters of lagoons for about two weeks,
+swimming about in incredible numbers, and apparently so terrified of
+their many enemies in their own element, and the savage, keen-eyed
+frigate birds which constantly assail them from above, that they
+sometimes crowd into small pools on the inner reef, and when the tide is
+low, seek to hide themselves by lying in thick masses under the
+overhanging ledges of coral rock. Simultaneously--or at least within a
+day or two at most--the swarming millions of _atuli_ are followed into
+the lagoons by the _gatala_--a large black and grey rock-cod (much
+esteemed by the natives for the delicacy of its flavour) and great
+numbers of enormous eels. At other times of the year both the _gatala_
+and the eels are never or but rarely seen inside the lagoons, but are
+occasionally caught outside the reef at a good depth--forty to sixty
+fathoms. As soon, however, as the young bonito appear, both eels and
+rock-cod change their normal habits, and entering the lagoons through
+the passages thereto, they take up their quarters in the deeper
+parts--places which are fringed by a labyrinthine border of coral
+forest, and are at most ten fathoms deep. Here, when the _atuli_ are
+covering the surface above, the eels and rock-cod actually rise to the
+surface and play havoc among them, especially during moonlight nights,
+and in the daytime both rock-cod and eels may be seen pursuing their
+hapless prey in the very shallowest water, amidst the little pools and
+runnels of the coral reef. It is at this time that the natives of
+Nukufetau and some other islands have some glorious sport, for in
+addition to the huge eels and rock-cod many other deep-sea fish flock
+into the shallower lagoon waters--all in pursuit of the _atuli_--and all
+eager to take the hook.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As soon as the natives had left the house, Mar�ko turned to me with a
+beaming smile. "Let them go on first and net some _atuli_ for us for
+bait," he said, "you and I shall follow in my own canoe and fish for
+_gatala_. It will be a great thing for one of us to catch the first
+_gatala_ of the season. Yesterday, when I was over there," pointing to
+two tiny islets within the lagoon, "I saw some _gatala_. The natives
+laugh at me and say I am mistaken--that because the _atuli_ had not come
+there could be no _gatala_. Now, _I_ think that the big fish came in
+some days ago, but the strong wind and current kept the _atuli_ outside
+till now. Come."
+
+I needed no pressing. In five minutes I had my basket of lines (of white
+American cotton) ready, and joined Mar�ko. His canoe (the best on the
+island, of course) was already in the water and manned by his two sons,
+boys of eight and twelve respectively. I sat for'ard, the two youngsters
+amidships, the father took the post of honour as _tautai_ or steersman,
+and with a chuckle of satisfaction from the boys, off we went in the
+wake of about thirty other canoes.
+
+Oh, the delight of urging a light canoe over the glassy water of an
+island lagoon, and watching the changing colours and strange, grotesque
+shapes of the coral trees and plants of the garden beneath as they
+vanish swiftly astern, and the quick _chip, chip_ of the flashing
+paddles sends the whirling, noisy eddies to right and left, and frights
+the lazy, many-hued rock-fish into the darker depths beneath! On, on,
+till the half mile or more of shallow water which covers the inner reef
+is passed, and then suddenly you shoot over the top of the submarine
+wall, into deepest, loveliest blue, full thirty fathoms deep, and as
+calm and quiet as an infant sleeping on its mother's bosom, though
+perhaps not a quarter of a mile away on either hand the long rollers of
+the Pacific are bellowing and thundering on the grim black shelves of
+the weather coast.
+
+So it was on this morning, but with added delights and beauties; as
+instead of striking straight across the lagoon to our rendezvous we had
+to skirt the beaches of a chain of thickly wooded islets, which gave
+forth a sweet smell, mingled with the odours of _nono_ blossoms; for
+during the night rain had fallen after a long month of dry weather, and
+Nature was breathing with joy. High overhead there floated some
+snow-white tropic birds--those gentle, ethereal creatures which, to the
+toil-spent seaman who watches their mysterious poise in illimitable
+space, seem to denote the greater Mystery and Rest that lieth beyond all
+things; and lower down, and sweeping swiftly to and fro with steady,
+outspread wing and long, forked tail, the fierce-eyed, savage frigate
+birds scanned the surface of the water in search of prey, and then
+finding it not, rose without apparent motion to the cloudless canopy of
+blue and became as but tiny black specks--and then, _swish_! and the
+tiny black specks which but a minute ago were high in heaven are
+flashing by your cheeks with a weird, whistling sound like winged
+spectres. You look for them. They are gone. Already they are a thousand
+feet overhead. Five of them. And all five are as motionless as if they,
+with their wide, outspread wings, had never moved from their present
+position for a thousand years.
+
+"Chip, chip," and "chunk, chunk," go our paddles as we now head eastward
+towards the rising sun in whose resplendent rays the tufted palms of the
+two islets stand clearly out, silhouetted against the sea rim beyond.
+Now and again we hear, as from a long, long distance, the echoes of the
+voices of the people in the canoes ahead; a soft white mist began to
+gather over and then ascend from the water, and as we drew near the
+islets the occasional thunder of the serf on Motuluga Reef we heard
+awhile ago changed into a monotonous droning hum.
+
+"_Aue_!" said Mar�ko the _tautai_, with a laugh, as he ceased paddling
+and laid his paddle athwartships, "'tis like to be a hot day and calm.
+So much the better for our fishing, for the water will be very clear.
+Boy, give me a coconut to drink."
+
+"Take some whisky with it, Mar�ko," I said, taking a flask out of my
+basket.
+
+"_Isa_! Shame upon you! How can you say such a thing to me, a minister!"
+And then he added, with a reproachful look, "and my children here, too."
+He would have winked, but he dared not do so, for one of his boys had
+turned his face aft and was facing him. I, however, made him a hurried
+gesture which he quite understood. Good old Mar�ko! He was an honest,
+generous-hearted, broad-minded fellow, but terribly afraid of his
+tyrannical deacons, who objected to him smoking even in the seclusion of
+his own curatage, and otherwise bullied and worried him into behaving
+exactly as they thought he should.
+
+By the time we reached the islets the _atuli_ catching had begun, and
+more than a hundred natives were encircling a considerable area of water
+with finely-meshed nets and driving the fish shoreward upon a small
+sandy beach, where they were scooped up in gleaming masses of shining
+blue and silver by a number of women and children, who tumbled over and
+pushed each other aside amidst much laughter and merriment.
+
+On the larger of the two islets were a few thatched huts with open
+sides. One of these was reserved for the missionary and the white man,
+and hauling our canoe up on the beach at the invitation of the people,
+we sat down under a shed whilst the women grilled us some of the
+freshly-caught fish. This took barely over ten minutes, as fires had
+already been lighted by the children. The absence of bread was made up
+for by the flesh of half-grown coconuts and cooked _puraka_--gigantic
+species of taro which thrives well in the sandy soil of the Equatorial
+islands of the Pacific. Just as we had finished eating and were
+preparing our lines we heard loud cries from the natives who were still
+engaged among the _atuli_, and three or four of them seizing spears
+began chasing what were evidently some large fish. Presently one of them
+darted his weapon, and then gave a loud cry of triumph, as he leapt into
+the water and dragged out a large salmon-like fish called "utu", which
+was at once brought ashore for my inspection. The man who had struck
+it--an active, wiry old fellow named Viliamu (William) was panting with
+excitement. Some large _gatala_, he said, had just made their appearance
+with the _utu_ and were pursuing the small fish; therefore would we
+please hurry forward with our preparations. Then the leader of the
+entire party stood up and bellowed out in bull-like tones his
+instructions. The canoes were all to start together, and when the ground
+was reached all lines were to be lowered simultaneously; there was to be
+no crowding. The white man and missionary, however, if they wished,
+could start first and make a choice of position.
+
+"No, no," I said, "let us all start fair."
+
+This was greeted with a chorus of approval, and then leaving the women
+and children to attend to the camp, we hurried back to the canoes. Just
+as we were leaving the hut I had a look at the _utu_--a fish I had never
+before seen. It was about three feet in length, and only for its head
+(which was coarse and clumsy) much like a heavy salmon. The back was
+covered with light green scales, the sides and belly a pure silver, and
+the fins and tail tipped with yellow. It weighed about 20 lbs., and
+presented a very handsome appearance.
+
+The fishing-ground to which we were now paddling was not half a mile
+from the islets, and lay between them and the outer reef which formed
+its northern boundary. It consisted of a series of deep channels or
+connected pools running or situated amidst a network of minor reefs, the
+surfaces of which were, for the most part, bare at low water. Generally
+the depth was from eight to ten fathoms; in places, however, it was much
+deeper, and I subsequently found that there were spots whereon I could
+stand (on the coral ledge) and drop my line into chasms of thirty-two or
+thirty-three fathoms. Here the water was almost as blue to the eye as
+the ocean, and here the very largest fish resorted--such as the _pura_,
+a species of rock-cod, and a blue-scaled groper, the native name of
+which I cannot now recall.
+
+It must have been nearly ten o'clock when the canoes were all in
+position, and the word was given to let go lines. The particular spot in
+which we were congregated was about three acres in extent and about
+seven fathoms in depth, with water as clear as crystal; and even the
+dullest eye could discern the smallest pebble or piece of broken coral
+lying upon the bottom, which was generally composed of patches of coarse
+sand surrounded by an interlacing fringe of growing coral, or white,
+blue, or yellow boulders. A glance over the side showed us that the
+_gatala_ had arrived; we could see numbers of them swimming lazily to
+and fro beneath, awaiting the flowing tide which would soon cover the
+lagoon from one shore to the other with swarms of young bonito, as they
+swam about in search of such places as that in which we were now about
+to begin fishing.
+
+Each man had baited his hook with the third of an _atuli_--at this stage
+of their life about four inches long and exactly the colour and shape of
+a young mackerel--and within five minutes after "_Tu'u tau kafa_!"
+("Let go lines!") had been called out several of the canoes around our
+own began to pull up fish--four to six pounders. I was fishing with a
+white cotton line, with two hooks, and Mar�ko with the usual native
+gear--a hand-made line of hibiscus bark with a barbless hook made from a
+long wire nail, with its point ground fine and well-curved inwards. We
+both struck fish at the same moment, and I knew by the zigzag pull that
+I had two. Up they came together--three spotted beauties about eighteen
+inches in length and weighing over 5 lbs. each. Then I found the
+advantage of the native style of hook; Mar�ko simply put his left thumb
+and forefinger into the fish's eye, had his hook free in a moment, had
+baited, lowered again and was pulling up another before I had succeeded
+in freeing even my first hook which was firmly fixed in the fish's
+gullet, out of sight. I soon put myself on a more even footing by
+cutting off the small one and a half inch hooks I had been using and
+bending on two thick and long-shanked four inchers. These answered
+beautifully, as although the barbs caused me some trouble, their stout
+shanks afforded a good grip and leverage when extracting them from the
+hard and keen-toothed jaws of the struggling fish. Then, too, I had
+another advantage over my companions; I was wearing a pair of seaboots
+which effectually protected my feet from either the terrible fins or the
+teeth of the fish in the bottom of the canoe.
+
+I had caught my eighth fish, when an outcry came from a canoe near us,
+as a young man who was seated on the for'ard thwart rose to his feet and
+began hauling in his line, which was standing straight up and down, taut
+as an iron bar, the canoe meanwhile spinning round and round although
+the steersman used all his efforts to keep her steady.
+
+"What is it, Tuluia?" called out fifty voices at once. "A shark?"
+
+"My mother's bones!" said old Viliamu with a laugh of contempt. "'Tis an
+eel, and Tuluia, who was asleep, has let it twist its tail around a
+piece of coral. May he lose it for his stupidity."
+
+We all ceased fishing to watch, and half a dozen men began jeering at
+the lad, who was too excited to heed them. Old Viliamu, who was in the
+next canoe, looked down, and then cried out that he could see the eel,
+which had taken several turns of its body around a thick branch of
+growing coral.
+
+"His head is up," he called out to the youth, "but you cannot move him,
+he has too many turns in and out among the coral." Then paddling up
+alongside he again looked at the struggling creature, then felt the line
+which was vibrating with the tension. Stepping out of his own craft into
+that of the young man, the line was placed in his hands without an inch
+of it being payed out, for once one of these giant eels can get his head
+down he will so quickly twine the line in and out among the rugged coral
+that it is soon chafed through, if of ordinary thickness. But the
+ancient knew his work well, as we were soon to see. Taking a turn of the
+line well up on his forearm and grasping it with his right a yard lower
+down, he waited for a second or two, then suddenly bent his body till
+his face nearly touched the water, then he sprang erect and with
+lightning-like rapidity began to haul in hand _under_ hand [12] amid
+loud cries of approval as the wriggling body of the eel was seen
+ascending clear of the coral. The moment it reached the surface, a
+second native, with unerring aim sent a spear through it and then a blow
+or two upon the head with a club carried for the purpose took all
+further fight out of the creature, which was then lifted out of the
+water and dropped into the canoe. Here the end of its tail was quickly
+split open and we saw no more of him for the time being.
+
+To capture an eel so soon was looked upon as a lucky omen, to have lost
+it would have been a presage of ill-fortune for the rest of the day, and
+the incident put every one in high good humour. By this time the tide
+was flowing over the flatter parts of the reef and young bonito could be
+seen jumping out of the water in all directions. Immense bodies were, so
+I was assured by the natives, now coming into the lagoon from the sea,
+and would continue to do so till the tide turned, when those in the
+passage, unable to face a six-knot current, would be carried out again,
+to make another attempt later on.
+
+By this time every canoe was hauling in large rock-cod almost as quick
+as the lines could be baited, and the bottom of our own craft presented
+a gruesome sight--a lather of blood and froth and kicking fish, some of
+which were over 20 lbs. weight. Telling the two boys to cease fishing
+awhile and stun some of the liveliest, I unthinkingly began to bale out
+some of the ensanguined water, when a score of indignant voices bade me
+cease. Did I want to bring all the sharks in the world around us? I was
+asked; and old Viliamu, who was a sarcastic old gentleman, made a mock
+apology for me--
+
+"How should he know any better? The sharks of Tokelau have no teeth,
+like the people there, for they too are eaters of _fala_."
+
+This evoked a sally of laughter, in which of course I joined. I must
+explain that the natives of the Tokelau Group, among whom I had lived,
+through constantly chewing the tough drupes of the fruit of the _fala_
+(pandanus palm) wear out their teeth prematurely, and are sometimes
+termed "toothless" by other natives of the South Pacific. However, I was
+to have my own little joke at Viliamu's expense later on.
+
+Just at this time a sudden squall, accompanied by torrents of rain, came
+down upon us from the eastward, and whilst Mar�ko and his boys kept us
+head to wind--none of the canoes were anchored--I took the opportunity
+of getting ready two of my own lines, each treble-hooked, for the boys.
+Their own were old and rotten, and had parted so often that they were
+now too short to be of use, and, besides that, the few remaining hooks
+of soft wire were too small. As soon as the squall was over I showed
+Mar�ko what I had done. He nodded and smiled, but said I should try and
+break off the barbs--his boys did not understand them as well as
+native-made hooks. This was quickly accomplished with a heavy knife, and
+the youngsters began to haul up fish two and three at a time at such a
+rate that the canoe soon became deep in the water outside and very full
+inside.
+
+"A few more, Mar�ko," I said, "and then we'll go ashore, unload, and
+come back again. I want to tease that old man."
+
+We caught all we could possibly carry in another quarter of an hour, and
+I was confident that our take exceeded that of any other canoe. This was
+because the natives would carefully watch their stone sinkers descend,
+and use every care to keep them from being entangled in the coral,
+whilst my line, which had a 12 oz. leaden sinker, would plump quickly to
+the bottom in the midst of the hungry fish; consequently, although I
+lost some hooks by fouling and now and then dragged up a bunch of coral,
+I was catching more fish than any one else. And I was not going to let
+my reputation suffer for the sake of a few hooks. So we coiled up our
+lines on the outrigger platform, and taking up our paddles headed
+shoreward, taking care to pass near Viliamu's canoe. He hailed me and
+asked me for a pipe of tobacco.
+
+"I shall give it to you when we return," I said.
+
+"When you return! Why, where are you going?" he asked.
+
+"On shore, you silly old woman! I have been showing these boys how to
+fish for _gatala_, and we go because the canoe is sinking. When we
+return these two _tamariki_ (infants) shall show _you_ how to fish now
+that they have learnt from me."
+
+There was a loud laugh at this, and as the old man took the jest very
+good-naturedly I brought up alongside, showed him our take, and gave him
+a stick of tobacco. The astonishment of himself and his crew of three at
+the quantity of fish we had afforded me much satisfaction, though I
+could not help feeling that our luck was not due to my own skill alone.
+
+Returning to the islets we were just in time to escape two fierce
+squalls, which lasted half an hour and raised such a sea that the
+remaining canoes began to follow us, as they were unable to keep on the
+ground. During our absence the women and children had been most
+industrious; the weather-worn, dilapidated huts had been made habitable
+with freshly-plaited _kapaus_--coarse mats of green coconut leaves, the
+floors covered with clean white pebbles, sleeping mats in readiness, and
+heaps of young drinking nuts piled up in every corner, whilst outside
+smoke was arising from a score of ground ovens in which taro and puraka
+were being cooked, together with bundles of _atuli_ wrapped in leaves.
+
+Etiquette forbade Mar�ko and myself counting our fish until the rest of
+the party returned, although the women had taken them out of the canoe
+and laid them on the beach, where the pouring rain soon washed them
+clean and showed them in all their shining beauty. Among them were two
+or three parrot-fish--rich carmine, striped with bands of bright yellow,
+boneless fins, and long protruding teeth in the upper jaw showing out
+from the thick, fleshy lips; and one _afulu_--a species of deep-water
+sand mullet with purple scales and yellow fins.
+
+Whilst awaiting the rest of the canoes I drew the teacher into our hut
+and pressed him to take some whisky. He was wet, cold, and shivering,
+but resolutely declined to take any. "I should like to drink a little,"
+he said frankly, "but I must not. I cannot drink it in secret, and yet I
+must not set a bad example. Do not ask me, please. But if you like to
+give some to the old men do so, but only a very little." I did do so. As
+soon as the rest of the party landed I called up four of the oldest men
+and gave each of them a stiff nip. They were all nude to the waist, and
+like all Polynesians who have been exposed to a cold rain squall, were
+shivering and miserable. After each man had taken his nip and emitted a
+deep sigh of satisfaction I observed that hundreds of old white men
+saved their lives by taking a glass of spirits when they were wet
+through--they had to do so by the doctor's orders.
+
+"That is true," said one old fellow; "when men grow old, and the rain
+falls upon them it does not run off their skins as it would from the
+smooth skins of young men. It gets into the wrinkles and stays there.
+But when the belly is warmed with grog a man does not feel the cold."
+
+"True," I said gravely, as I poured some whisky out for myself; "true,
+quite true, my dear friends. And in these islands it is very bad for an
+old man to be exposed to much rain. That is why I am disturbed in my
+mind. See, there is Mar�ko, your minister. He, like you, is old; he is
+wet and cold. And he shivers. And he will not take a mouthful of this
+_rom_ because he fears scandal. Now if he should become ill and die I
+should be a disgraced man. This _rom_ is now not _rom_; it is medicine.
+And Mar�ko should take some even as you have taken it--to keep away
+danger."
+
+The four old fellows arose to the occasion. They talked earnestly
+together for a minute, and then formed themselves into a committee,
+requested me to head them as a deputation with the whisky, and then
+waited upon their pastor, who was putting on a dry shirt in another hut.
+I am glad to say that under our united protests he at last consented to
+save his life, and felt much better.
+
+Presently the women announced that the ovens were ready to be opened. As
+soon as the fish were counted, and the rain having ceased, we all
+gathered round the canoes and watched each one emptied of its load. As I
+imagined, our party had taken the most fish, and not only the most, but
+the heaviest as well. Mar�ko added to my blushing honours by informing
+the company that as a fisherman and a knowledgable man generally I
+justified his brother minister's opinion and would prove an acquisition
+to the community. We then inspected the first eel caught, and a truly
+huge creature it was, quite nine feet in length, and in girth at its
+thickest part, as near as I could guess with a piece of line, thirty
+inches. The line with which it was caught was made of new four-stranded
+coir-cinnet, as thick as a stout lead pencil, and the hook a piece of
+3/6 or 1/2 inch iron with a 6-inch shank, once used as a fish spear,
+without a barb! The natives seemed much pleased at the interest
+displayed, and told me that sometimes these eels grew to _elua gafa_
+(_i.e._, two fathoms), but were seldom caught, and asked me if I had
+tackle strong enough for such. Later on I showed them a 27-stranded
+American cotton line 100 fathoms long, with a 4-inch hook, curved in the
+shank, as thick as a pencil, and "eyed" for a twisted wire snooding.
+They had never seen such beautiful tackle before, and were loud in their
+expressions of admiration, but thought the line too thin for a very
+heavy fish. I told them that at Nanomaga I had caught _palu_ (a
+nocturnal feeding fish of great size) in over sixty fathoms with that
+same line.
+
+"That is true," said one of them politely, "we were told that you and
+Tiaki (one Jack O'Brien, an old trader) of Funafuti have caught many
+_palu_ with your long lines; but the _palu_ is a weak fish even when he
+is a fathom long. And as he comes up he grows weaker and weaker, and
+sometimes he bursts open when he comes to the surface. Now if a big
+eel--an eel two fathoms long--"
+
+"If he was three fathoms long he could not break this line," I replied
+positively.
+
+They laughed and told me that when I hooked even a small eel, one half a
+fathom in length, I would change my opinion.
+
+Soon after our midday meal was over, and we were preparing to return to
+our fishing-ground with an ample supply of fresh bait, the sky to
+windward became black and threatening, and through the breaks in the
+long line of palms on the weather side of the island, which permitted
+the horizon to be viewed, we could see that a squall of unusual violence
+was coming. All the canoes were at once hauled up on the lee-side of the
+islets, the huts were secured by ropes as quickly as possible, and every
+one hurried under shelter. In a few minutes the wind was blowing with
+astonishing fury, and the air was full of leaves, sticks, and other
+_d�bris_, whilst the coco-palms and other trees on the islets seemed
+likely to be torn up by the roots. This lasted about ten minutes. Then
+came a sudden lull, followed by a terrific and deafening downpour of
+rain; then more wind, another downpour, and the sun was out again!
+
+As soon as the squall was over, I walked round to the weather side of
+the islet with some children. We found the beach covered with some
+thousands of _atuli_ and beautiful little garfish which had been driven
+on shore by the force of the wind. We were soon joined by women carrying
+baskets, which they filled with fish and carried back to the camp. On
+returning, we again launched the canoes and started off again--to meet
+with some disappointment, for although the _gatala_ still bit freely and
+several eels were also taken, some scores of the small, pestilent,
+lagoon sharks were swimming about and played havoc with our lines. These
+torments are from two to four feet in length, and their mouths, which
+are quite out of proportion to their insignificant size, are set with
+rows of teeth of razor-like keenness. The moment a baited hook was seen
+one of these little wretches would dart at it like lightning, and
+generally bit the line through just above the hook. So quick were they,
+that one could seldom even feel a tug unless the hook got fast in their
+jaws. Taking off my sinker, and bending on a big hook with a wire snood,
+I abandoned myself to their destruction, and as fast as I hauled one
+alongside it was stunned, cut into three or four pieces, and thrown
+overboard to be devoured by its fellows. Many of the Ellice and Tokelau
+islanders regard these young sharks as a delicacy, as their flesh is
+very tender, and has not the usual unpleasant smell. In one of these
+young sea lawyers we found no less than five hooks, with pieces of line
+attached; these were duly restored to their owners.
+
+Another two hours passed, during which we had fairly good sport, then
+the rain began to fall so heavily that we gave up for the day. We spent
+the first part of the evening in the huts, eating, smoking, and talking,
+and overhauling our tackle for the next day. It had been intended that
+about midnight we should all go crayfishing in the shallow waters along
+the shore of the islets, but this idea had to be abandoned in
+consequence of the rain having soaked the coco palms--the dead branches
+of which are rolled and plaited into a cylindrical form and used as
+torches. The method of catching crayfish is very simple: a number of
+men, each carrying a _kaulama_ torch about 6 feet in length in the left
+hand, and a small scoop net in the right, walk waist-high through the
+water; the crayfish, dazed by the brilliant light, are whipped up into
+the nets and dropped into baskets carried by the women and children who
+follow. They can only be caught on dark, moonless nights.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When we returned to the village our spoils included besides a great
+number of fish, a few turtle and some young frigate birds. The latter
+were captured for the purpose of being tamed. I made many subsequent
+visits to the two islets, sometimes alone and sometimes with my native
+friends, and on each occasion I left these lovely little spots with a
+keen feeling of regret, for they are ideal resting-places to him who
+possesses a love of nature and the soul of a fisherman.
+
+
+
+
+_Mrs. MacLaggan's "Billy"_
+
+
+When Tom Denison was quite a young man he was earning a not too
+dishonest sort of a living as supercargo of a leaky old ketch owned by
+Mrs. Molly MacLaggan of Samoa, which in those days was the Land of
+Primeval Wickedness and Original and Imported Sin, Strong Drink, and
+Loose Fish generally. Captain "Bully" Hayes also lived in Samoa; his
+house and garden adjoined that of Mrs. MacLaggan, and at the back there
+was a galvanised iron cottage, inhabited by a drunken French carpenter
+named Leger, whose wife was a full-blooded negress, and made kava for
+Denison and "Bully" every evening, and used to beat Billy MacLaggan on
+the head with a pole about six times a day, and curse him vigorously in
+mongrel Martinique French. Billy MacLaggan was Mrs. Molly's male goat,
+and as notorious in Samoa as Bully Hayes himself.
+
+I want to try and tell this story as clearly as possible, but there are
+so many people concerned, and so many things which really happened
+together, though each one seemed to come before the other a little and
+try and get into the general jumble, and every one was so confused,
+some fatuous people blaming the goat, and some Denison, who was
+generally disliked by the Germans, while Mrs. Molly said it was caused
+by the man with the bucket of milk, and Captain Hayes who had bribed him
+to do it, and nearly caused bloodshed, as the German officer who was
+insulted by Hayes had shot a lot of people in duels, or if he had not
+shot them he had stuck his sword into them in fifteen places, more or
+less.
+
+Now let me explain: First of all there was Mrs. Molly, who was the
+hostess; then there was Hamilton, the Apia pilot and his wife; the
+manager of the big German firm at Matafale (he wore gold spectacles, and
+was very fond of Mrs. Molly, who was a widow); then there was Bully
+Hayes, and old Coe the American consul, and young Denison; all these
+were some of the local guests, and lived in Samoa, the rest were
+officers from a German man-of-war lying in port, and the usual
+respectable town loafers. Then there were Leger, the bibulous carpenter;
+'_Liza,_ his black wife; a white policeman named Thady O'Brien, and a
+loafing scoundrel of a Samoan named Mataiasi, called "Matty" for
+brevity, who was the public flogger, and milked Mrs. MacLaggan's herd of
+seven imported Australian cows; and lastly the goat, and about thirty or
+forty of Bully Hayes's crew, and as many Samoans, who came to look at
+the dancing and see what they could steal, Leger and his wife and the
+policeman and the town flogger had charge of the refreshment tables,
+which for the sake of coolness had been laid out upon the wide, back
+verandah, and handsomely decorated with pot plants and flags from the
+man-of-war, and blanc-manges and jellies, and tipsy cake, and cold roast
+pigeons and chickens were lying around as if they weren't worth two
+cents.
+
+The big wholesale store, which formed part of Mrs. Molly's house and
+establishment, made a fine ballroom. All the barrels of whisky and
+Queensland rum, and the cases of lager beer and Holland's gin, had been
+stowed neatly on each side, and covered over with flags and orange
+blossoms by Denison and Bully Hayes and his men, and the orange blossoms
+killed the smell of the rum so much that strangers would have thought it
+was sherry.
+
+Everything went on beautifully for the first two hours, and then Mrs.
+Molly asked Denison to take out a very pretty young half-caste lady and
+get her a drink of milk. When they reached the side table where the milk
+should have been, they found it all gone; but O'Brien the policeman said
+that Mataiasi had just started off to milk another cow.
+
+Just then Hayes came out to the refreshment tables with a lady on his
+arm. She was thirsty, and so "Bully" opened a large bottle of champagne,
+and she and he and Denison and the young half-caste lady drank it; then
+they drank another, and all went oft together to see Mataiasi milking
+the cow, which was tied up to a coconut tree just outside the fence. The
+cow was a yellow cow, and was standing very quietly, and just beside her
+Billy MacLaggan (who caused all this trouble) was lying down, working
+his jaws to and fro and making curious, snorting sounds in the bright
+and gorgeous moonlight. I forgot to say that Wm. MacLaggan was the
+largest and ugliest goat ever known to the memory of man, and had been
+taught every vice and wickedness any goat could be taught, and it is as
+natural for a goat to imbibe sin as it is for him to eat a cactus, or a
+hedgehog, or a tract.
+
+Hayes addressed the goat by his Christian name, and asked him how he
+did, and Billy looked at Hayes for a second or two out of his green,
+sharky eyes, then he rose in a dignified manner, and came over to him to
+be scratched under the chin. Then he blew himself out, snorted, and
+rubbed his horns against the captain's knee: and Hayes remarked to
+Denison that the poor beggar wanted a drink, and proposed to give him a
+"proper one."
+
+The goat knew perfectly well what "drink" meant, and made his vicious
+tail quiver; then he followed them back to the house, and stood at the
+foot of the steps waiting for Hayes and Tom to come out again.
+
+On the other side of the courtyard was Mrs. MacLaggan's laundry. The
+door was wide open and the place was in darkness, and no one took any
+notice when presently Tom sauntered out of the ballroom, picked up a
+large plateful of tipsy-cake, and, being kind to animals, gave a piece
+to William, who followed him into the laundry for the rest; then Hayes
+came in with a quart bottle of champagne, shut the door and struck a
+light. Then he opened the bottle of fizz and poured it out into a deep,
+enamelled starching-dish, and Billy MacLaggan drank thereof, and then
+raised his head, with his immoral-looking beard hanging in a sodden
+point like a wet deck-swab, and asked for more. That is, he asked as
+well as any Christian and civilised goat could ask, by standing up on
+his hind legs like a circus-horse and making strange, unearthly noises.
+Then he rammed his wicked old nose into the dish again, and pushed it
+all round the room, trying to sop up more liquor, which wasn't there,
+and trod on Denison's canvas-slippered foot, and knocked over the little
+tin kerosene oil lamp which was standing on the floor, and when Hayes,
+with loud and blasphemous remarks grabbed at the ironing-blanket of the
+laundry-table to extinguish the flames, he pulled the table down on the
+top of Denison and himself and the goat and everything, for the blanket
+was nailed on at the four corners, and when he was down on his hands and
+knees, the goat being exceedingly alarmed and half-drunk, and smelling
+his own hair burning, put his head down and charged at the universe in
+general, or anything else he could hit, and he hit Hayes fair on the
+temple with a noise like a ship's mainmast going by the board; then the
+people outside burst in the door, and the creature, with a bull-like
+bellow, charged out among them, and landed his bony head into the
+stomach of Mataiasi, who was carrying the bucket of milk, and was afraid
+to put it down when he saw him coming; then in some way the handle of
+the iron bucket got on Billy MacLaggan's horns, which simply made him
+thirst for gore, for he thought he was being made fun of because he was
+in liquor. With the bucket swinging and clattering and banging around,
+he made a dash up on the verandah, among the pretty muslin-clad ladies
+and white-duck suited men, creating havoc and destruction, and smelling
+of kerosene and burnt hair and ancient goat, and uttering horrible,
+blood-curdling _bah-h-h-s_, till he got into the card-table corner, and
+mistaking the wide glass window for an open door, he promptly jumped
+through it, and fell with a shower of glass outside on to the verandah
+again, where Thady O'Brien and the fat German with the spectacles fell
+on him, and tried to hold him down, and the spectacles were ground into
+dust and otherwise damaged, and some of the ladies endeavouring to
+escape out of the hideous _m�l�e_ fell with him, and then the goat
+struggled to his feet with the bucket squashed flat against his
+forehead, and his horns covered with lace, and tulle, and bits of kid
+gloves, and planted one of his cloven forefeet into the shirt-front of a
+German officer, and smashed his watch. Then with another roar of
+defiance he burst through and disappeared into the wilderness at the
+back of Mrs. MacLaggan's garden, where he was followed by Leger, the
+drunken carpenter, and his wife, and nineteen Samoans, all armed with
+rifles. The army fired at him for two hours, and about midnight returned
+and reported him riddled with bullets, whereupon Mrs. Molly, who was a
+little hysterical at the awful mess and wreckage caused by the brute,
+thanked them and gave them ten dollars.
+
+Now it so happened that Billy MacLaggan was not killed at all, for about
+two o'clock in the morning, as Bully Hayes and Tom Denison were sitting
+on the verandah of the former's house at Matautu Point, drinking brandy
+and soda, and dabbing arnica bandages on their various contusions, Pilot
+Hamilton hailed them from the front gate. He had just left the dance
+with his wife, and was quite sober--for Samoa. He asked them to come on
+with him to his place, as Billy MacLaggan, he said, was lying down in
+Mrs. Hamilton's kitchen, and seemed poorly, and that he hoped Hayes
+would forgive the poor thing, which was only a dumb animal. So Hayes and
+Denison went and saw William, who was now sober and looked sorry. They
+dressed his wounds, and Tom Denison took him on board early in the
+morning, intending to take him to sea till the memory of his misdeeds
+had toned down a bit, for Billy was a great institution in Samoa, and
+had many friends. Hardly a white man in the place, no matter how hard up
+he was, but would stand Billy a bottle of lager or a chew of tobacco. (I
+forgot to mention that Billy would drink anything and chew anything,
+except cigarettes, at which he snorted with contempt.) Now Denison's
+little vessel was lying quite near the German man-of-war, and was to
+sail next day for the Solomons if the captain was sober, and he
+(Denison) had a lot of work to do to get the ship ready, and whilst he
+was poring over accounts in the cabin about noon, a boat ran alongside
+and Bully Hayes came into the cabin.
+
+"Where's Billy?" he said. "Quick, get him into my boat at once. There's
+a search-party coming on board, and the widow is going to give you the
+dirty kick-out, Tom Denison. There's been the devil to pay over that
+cursed goat, but I'm going to save his life all the same. But if she
+does sack you, you can come to me for a berth."
+
+Billy, who was placidly eating bananas on the main deck, was at once
+seized and hoisted over the side into Hayes's boat, which shoved off,
+leaving Hayes on board to explain things to Tom.
+
+It seemed that when the fat German manager--the man with spectacles--I
+mean the man who had the spectacles until Billy MacLaggan came in--the
+man who was courting Mrs. Molly--fell on the top of the goat, some other
+man trod on his face, and Leger (who was not sober enough to tell one
+person from another) said that he saw Tom Denison do it. Seven natives,
+male and female, swore that at the time alleged Tom was out on the beach
+bathing his crushed toe in the salt water, and using solemn British
+oaths; but Leger, who disliked Denison, who had once kicked him
+overboard violently for being drunk, not only stuck to the story, but
+said that Hayes and Tom had set the goat on fire on purpose to break up
+the dance and cause annoyance to the Germans present; also he vaguely
+hinted that they, Denison and Hayes, would have driven the seven cows
+into the ballroom but couldn't find them. Then Mrs. MacLaggan promised
+the fat man to sack Denison on the following morning, and at midnight,
+as I have said, word was brought in that Billy had been shot. But about
+ten in the morning Leger heard from some native that the goat was as
+well as ever, and on board Denison's vessel, and being a mean, spiteful
+little hound, off he trotted to the German manager, and said that
+Captain Hayes and Mr. Denison had rescued the creature. At that very
+moment the manager was talking to some German officers, one of whom was
+the man whose watch had been smashed, and as every German in Samoa hated
+Hayes most fervently, it was at once concluded that Hayes had trained,
+or suborned, or bribed, or corrupted the goat to do it. So a young
+lieutenant went and called upon Hayes, and demanded satisfaction for his
+friend, and Hayes was exceedingly rude to him, but said that if the man
+with the broken watch liked to meet Billy MacLaggan with his own
+weapons, and fight him in a goatsmanlike manner, for fifty dollars a
+side, he (Hayes) would put up Billy's fifty. Then the lieutenant asked
+for a written apology for his friend, and Hayes said that Billy couldn't
+write, and, anyway, he was Mrs. Molly's goat. If the man with the
+smashed nickel wanted an apology, why the blazes didn't he approach Mrs.
+MacLaggan? he asked.
+
+Whilst Hayes was telling all this to Tom, pulling his thick beard and
+laughing loudly, as they paced the little vessel's deck, the
+search-party came on board to recover the goat. The leader bore a letter
+from Mrs. MacLaggan to Tom, informing him that his services as
+supercargo were no longer required, also that he could come ashore at
+once and be paid off, as his conduct was heartless, and the consuls said
+it might lead to serious complications, as it had been done with intent
+to insult the citizens of a friendly nation, one of whom, as he was
+aware, had made the natives cut down the price of copra half a cent.
+Under these circumstances, &c.
+
+Tom grinned and showed the letter to Hayes. Then he turned to the mate.
+
+"I've got the sack, Waters. You're in charge of this rotten, filthy old
+hooker now until the old man is sober."
+
+He packed up his traps, went ashore, drew his money from Mrs.
+MacLaggan's cashier, and bade him goodbye.
+
+"Where's the goat, Tom?"
+
+"On board Bully Hayes' ship. His crool, crool mistress shall see him no
+more! Never more shall his plaintive call to his nannies resound o'
+nights among the sleeping palm-groves of the Vaisigago Valley;
+never----"
+
+The cashier jumped up out of his chair and seized the dismissed
+supercargo by the collar.
+
+"Stop that bosh, you rattlebrained young ass, and come and take a
+farewell drink."
+
+"Never more will he butt alike the just and the unjust, the fat and
+bloated German merchant nor the herring-gutted Yankee skipper, nor the
+bare--ah--um--legged Samoan, nor the gorgeous consul in the solar topee.
+Gone is the glory of Samoa with Billy MacLaggan. Goodbye for the
+present, Wade, old man--I am not so proud of my new dignity--I am to be
+supercargo of the brig _Rona_--as to refuse to drink with you, though
+you are but a cashier. And give my farewell to the widow, and tell her
+that I bear her no ill-will, for I leave a dirty little tub of a
+cockroach-infested ketch for a swagger brig, where I shall wear white
+suits every day and feel that peace of mind which--"
+
+"Oh, do dry up, you young beggar," said the good-natured cashier, whose
+laughter proved so infectious that Tom joined in.
+
+"Come then, Wade, just another ere we part."
+
+Now as these two were drinking in the cashier's office it happened that
+Thady O'Brien, the policeman (he was chief of the municipal police, and
+fond of drink) saw them, and invited himself to join them and also to
+express his sorrow at Denison's "misfortune," as he called it, for
+Denison was a lovable sort of youth, and often gave him drink on board.
+So they all sat down, Wade in the one chair, and Tom and the policeman
+on the table, and had several more drinks, and just then Mrs. MacLaggan
+came to the door, holding a note in her hand. She bowed coldly to Tom,
+whose three stiff drinks of brandy enabled him to give her a reproachful
+glance.
+
+"Captain Hayes wants to buy one or two of the nanny-goats, to take away
+with him to Ponap�, Mr. Wade," she said. "I shall be glad to let him
+have them. Please tell Leger and Mataiasi to catch them at once."
+
+Then Mrs. MacLaggan went away, and Tom and O'Brien went down to the
+jetty to wait for a boat to take them on board--Tom to his duty, and
+O'Brien because he was thirsty again. Presently Leger and Mataiasi and a
+large concourse of native children came down, carrying two female goats,
+who, imagining they were to be cast into the sea, began to cry with
+great violence, and were immediately answered in a deep voice by Billy
+MacLaggan from over the water, whereupon Leger started to run off and
+tell Mrs. MacLaggan that Billy was alive, and on board the _Rona_, and
+Denison put out his foot and tripped him, and was at once assailed by
+Leger's black wife, who hit him on the head with a stick, and then
+herself was pushed backwards off the jetty into the water by Mr.
+O'Brien, taking several children and one of the goats with her, and in
+less than two minutes there was as pretty a fight as ever was seen.
+Several native police ran to help their superior officer, and a lot of
+dogs came with them; the dogs bit anybody and everybody
+indiscriminately, but most of them went for Leger and Denison, who were
+lying gasping together on the jetty, striving to murder each other; then
+a number of sailors belonging to a whaleship joined in, and tried to
+massacre or otherwise injure and generally maltreat the policemen, and
+by the time the boat from the _Rona_ came to the rescue the jetty looked
+like a battlefield, and one goat was drowned, and the new supercargo was
+taken on board to have his excoriations attended to, for he was in a
+very bad state.
+
+That is the end of the story, which I have told in a confused sort of
+away, I admit, because there are so many things in it, though I could
+tell a lot more about the adventures of Billy MacLaggan, after he went
+to sea with Captain Bully Hayes.
+
+
+
+
+_An Island Memory_
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+From early dawn wild excitement had prevailed in the great native
+village on the shores of Port Lele, and on board two ships which were
+anchored on the placid waters of the land-locked harbour. As the fleecy,
+cloud-like mist which, during the night, had enveloped the forest-clad
+spurs and summit of Mont Buache, was dispelled by the first airs of the
+awakened trade wind and the yellow shafts of sunrise, a fleet or canoes
+crowded with natives put off from the sandy beach in front of the king's
+house, and paddled swiftly over towards the ships, the captains of which
+only awaited their arrival to weigh and tow out through the passage.
+
+As the mist lifted, Cayse, the master of the _Iroquois_ of Sagharbour,
+stepped briskly up on the poop, and hailed the skipper of the other
+vessel, a small, yellow-painted barque of less than two hundred tons.
+
+"Are you ready, Captain Ross?"
+
+"All ready," was the answer; "only waiting for the military," and then
+followed a hoarse laugh.
+
+Cayse, a little, grizzled, and leathern-faced man of fifty, replied by
+an angry snarl, then turned to his mate, who stood beside him awaiting
+his orders.
+
+"Get these natives settled down as quickly as possible, Mr. North, then
+start to heave-up and loose sails. I reckon we'll tow out in an hour.
+The king will be here presently in his own boat. Hoist it aboard."
+
+North nodded in silence, and was just moving on to the main deck, when
+Cayse stopped him.
+
+"You don't seem too ragin' pleased this mornin', Mr. North, over this
+business. Naow, as I told you yesterday, I admire your feelin's on the
+subject, but I can't afford--"
+
+The mate's eyes blazed with anger.
+
+"And I tell you again that I won't have anything to do with it. I know
+my duty, and mean to stick to it. I shipped for a whaling voyage, and
+not to help savages to fight. Take my advice and give it up. Money got
+in this way will do you no good."
+
+Cayse shifted his feet uneasily.
+
+"I can't afford to sling away the chance of earnin' two or three
+thousan' dollars so easy. An' you'll hev to do your duty to me. Naow,
+look here--"
+
+North raised his hand.
+
+"That will do. I have said I will do my duty as mate, but not a hand's
+turn will I take in such bloody work as you and the skipper of that
+crowd of Sydney cut-throats and convicts are going into for the sake of
+six thousand dollars."
+
+"Well, I reckon we can do without you. Any one would think we was going
+piratin', instead of helping the king of this island to his rights.
+Naow, just tell me--"
+
+Again the mate interrupted him.
+
+"I am going for'ard to get the anchor up, and will obey all your orders
+as far as the working of the ship is concerned--nothing more."
+
+An hour later the two vessels, their decks crowded with three hundred
+savages, armed with muskets, spears, and clubs, were towed out through
+the narrow, reef-bound passage, and with the now freshening trade wind
+filling their sails, set a course along the coast which before sunset
+would bring them to Leass�, on the lee side of the island. But
+presently, in response to a signal from the _Lucy May_, the whaler lay
+to; a boat put off from the smaller ship, and Captain Ross came
+alongside, clambered over the bulwarks and joined Cayse and the young
+king of Port Lele, who were awaiting him on the poop, to discuss with
+him the plan of surprise and slaughter of the offending people of
+Leass�.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nearly a week before the _Iroquois_ had run into Port Lele to refresh
+before proceeding westward and northward to the Bonin Islands in
+pursuance of her cruise. Charlik, the king, was delighted to see Cayse,
+for in the days when his father was king the American captain had
+conveyed a party of one hundred Strong's Islanders from Port Lele to
+MacAskill's Island, landed them in his boats during the night, and stood
+off and on till daylight, when they returned reeking from their work of
+slaughter upon the sleeping people, and bringing with them some scores
+of women and children as captives. For this service the king had given
+Cayse half a ton of turtle-shell, and the services of ten young men as
+seamen for as long a time as the _Iroquois_ cruised in the Pacific on
+that voyage. When Charlik's father was dying, he called his head chiefs
+around him, and gave the boy into their care with these words--"Here die
+I upon my mat like a woman, long before my time, and to-morrow my spirit
+will hear the mocking laughs of the men of M�ut and Leass�, when they
+say, 'Sikra is dead; Sikra was but an empty boaster.'"
+
+Then his son spoke.
+
+"Not many days shall they laugh. They shall be destroyed all, all, all
+of them."
+
+The king touched his son's hand.
+
+"Those are good words. But be not too hasty. Wait till the American
+comes again. He will help with his men and guns. But he is a greedy man.
+Yet spare nothing; give him all the silver and gold money I have stored
+by for his return, and all the turtle-shell that can be gathered
+together. And let there be not even one little child left in M�ut or
+Leass�."
+
+Charlik was a lad or seventeen when his savage old father died, and for
+a year after his death he harried and distressed his people by his
+exactions. All day long the men toiled at making coconut oil, and at
+night time they watched along the beaches for the hawk-bill turtle; the
+oil they put into huge butts, which stood in the king's boat-sheds, and
+the costly turtle-shell was taken by the young ruler and locked up in
+the seamen's chests which lined the inside wall of the great
+council-house. And no man durst now fire a musket at a wild pig, for
+powder and ball had been made _tapu_--such things were given up to the
+chiefs, lest they might be wasted, and every morning three young men
+climbed up the rugged side of Mont Buache, to keep a look-out for the
+ship whose captain would help their master to wreak a bloody vengeance
+upon the rebellious people of Leass�.
+
+At the end of the sixteenth month of watching, a sail appeared coming
+from the southward, and the watchers on the mountain-top sped down to
+the king's house, and sinking upon their knees in the courtyard of coral
+slabs, whispered their news to one of the king's serving-men, who, with
+a musket in his hand and a cutlass girt around his naked waist, stood
+sentry before the youthful despot's sleeping-room.
+
+"Good," said the king to Kanka, his head chief; "'tis surely the
+American K�sa,[13] for this is the month in which he said he would
+return. Let the women make ready a great feast, and launch my three
+boats, so that if the wind fail, when the sun is high, they may help to
+drag the ship into Lele."
+
+Then came the sound of beating drums, and the long, mournful note of the
+conch-shells calling the wild people together to prepare for the ship.
+Turtle were lifted from their walled-in prison holes on the reef, hogs
+were strangled, and the king's wives went hither and thither among his
+slave women, bidding them hasten to kindle the ovens, whilst children
+went out into the great canework cage, wherein were hundreds of the
+king's wild pigeons, and seizing the birds, began to pluck them alive.
+
+An hour passed. Charlik, sitting in a European chair, was watching the
+wild bustle and excitement around him in the courtyard, when his eye
+fell on the three messengers, who, with bent head and bended knees, were
+awaiting his further commands.
+
+Beckoning to a young, light-skinned woman, who stood near him, he bade
+her bring him three of his best pearl-shell bonito hooks. They were
+brought, and taking them from her, he threw them to the men.
+
+"Ye have watched well," he said. "There is thy reward. Now go and eat
+and sleep."
+
+With eyes sparkling with pleasure, the young men each took up his
+precious gift, and with crouching forms crept slowly over to the further
+side of the courtyard, where they were waited upon by women with food.
+
+Presently the fair young woman--his sister S�--returned to her brother's
+side.
+
+"The ship is near," she said, and then her voice faltered; "but it is
+not the ship of K�sa. It is but a small ship, and she hath but two
+boats. K�sa's had five."
+
+"What lies are these?" said the young savage fiercely. "Go look again."
+
+The girl left him, to return a few minutes later with grey-headed old
+Kanka, who in response to an inquiring look from his master, bent his
+head and said slowly--
+
+"'Tis a strange ship--one that never before have we seen in Lele."
+
+The youth made him no answer. He merely raised his arm and pointed his
+finger at the three messengers.
+
+"Then they have lied to me. Bring them here to me."
+
+Kanka stepped over to where the fated men were sitting. They rose at his
+behest, and crept over to the king; behind them, at some invisible sign
+given by him, followed a man with a heavy club of _toa_ wood. The
+clamour which had filled the courtyard ceased, and terrified silence
+fell. One by one the messengers knelt upon the coral flags--no need for
+them to ask for mercy from Charlik, the savage son of a bloodstained
+father. The bearer of the club held the weapon knob downward, and
+watched the king's face for the signal of death. He nodded, and then,
+one after another of the men were struck and fell prone upon the stones.
+With scowling eyes Charlik regarded them for a moment or two in silence,
+then he turned unconcernedly away, as some of his slaves came forward
+and carried the bodies out of sight.
+
+Suddenly he sprang to his feet, as a loud, long cry, first from a single
+throat, and then echoed and reechoed by a hundred more, came upward from
+the beach.
+
+"A ship! A ship! Another ship! The ship of K�sa!"
+
+Bidding his sister and the old chief Kanka to come with him, Charlik
+quickly left the house, and walking through a grove of breadfruit trees,
+reached a spot from where he had a full view of the open sea. There
+right in the passage was a small barque; and, almost within hail, and
+just rounding the northern horn of the reef was a larger vessel, one
+glance at which told Charlik that it was the American whaler for which
+he had so long waited. In less than an hour they were at anchor abreast
+of the king's house, and the two captains were being rowed ashore. They
+met on the beach. The master of the smaller vessel was a tall,
+broad-shouldered man, armed with a pair of pistols and a cutlass.
+Striding over the sand he held out his hand to the American.
+
+"Good day. My name's Ross, barque _Lucy May_, of Sydney, from the New
+Hebrides to Hong Kong with sandalwood."
+
+"Glad to meet ye. My name is Cayse, ship _Iroquois_, bound on a sperm
+whalin' cruise."
+
+Further speech was denied them, for suddenly the thronging and excited
+natives around them drew aside right and left as Charlik, with a face
+beaming with smiles, came up to Cayse with outstretched hand, and
+greeted him warmly in English. Then he turned quickly to the Englishman
+and shook hands with him also, and asked him from whence he came.
+
+"From Sydney. I came here to get wood, water, and provisions."
+
+"Good. You can get all you want. Have you muskets and bullets to sell?"
+
+"I can spare you some."
+
+"Ah, that is good. I want plenty, plenty. Now come to my house and eat
+and drink; then we can talk."
+
+It was well on towards sunset before Charlik and Cayse had finished
+their talk. Ross meanwhile had gone on board the barque for some
+firearms which he was giving the king in exchange for several boatloads
+of provisions. When he returned, with two of his crew carrying six
+muskets, a keg of powder, and a bag of bullets, Cayse met him on the
+threshold of the king's house.
+
+"Come inside, mister. The king wants to talk to you on a matter of
+business. I reckon you an' me together can do what he wants done. But
+jest come along with me first. I want to show you the kind of fellow he
+is when he gets upset."
+
+The master of the sandalwooder followed the American across the wide
+courtyard to some native houses. Stopping in front of one, from which
+the low murmur of women's voices, broken now and then by a wailing cry,
+proceeded, he desired Ross to look in through the doorway. A small fire
+of coconut shells was burning in the centre of the room, and _by_ its
+light Ross saw several women crouched round the bodies of three men,
+performing the last offices for the dead. They looked at the white
+strangers with apathetic indifference, but ceased their labours whilst
+Ross bent down and examined the still faces. His scrutiny was brief,
+but it was enough.
+
+Cayse gave a sniggering laugh. "I reckon you'll feel sorter startled,
+mister, when I tell you that you were the cause of those men getting
+clubbed, hey?"
+
+Ross frowned angrily. "What are you driving at? What the devil had I to
+do with it?"
+
+"On'y this. You see I'm the white-headed boy with this young island
+cock, an' he's been expectin' to see the _Iroquois_ for quite a time.
+Your barque happened to heave in sight first, an' these three fellows
+who were standin' mast-head watch up thar on the mountain, came tearin'
+down an' reported that it was my old hooker. Charlik bein' a most
+impatient young fellow, had 'em clubbed on the spot; he should hev
+waited another five minutes. Come on, he's ready to talk business with
+us now."
+
+In the centre of the big council room Charlik, attended by his sister,
+was seated upon a mat. A couple of brightly burning ship's lanterns
+suspended from the beams overhead, revealed the figures of a score of
+armed natives, seated with their backs to the canework walls of the
+room; midway between them and the young king were two seamen's chests,
+beside which crouched the half-naked, tatooed form or old Kanka.
+
+Followed by the sailors carrying the muskets, the two captains walked
+over the soft, springy floor of mats, and seated themselves facing the
+young man. His eye lit up at the sight of the arms, and then he desired
+Ross to tell his men to withdraw. Then as the sound of their footsteps
+died away, he looked at Cayse and said briefly--
+
+"Go on, cap�n. You talk."
+
+Cayse went into the subject at once.
+
+"Captain Ross, do you want to earn three thousand dollars?"
+
+"Don't mind."
+
+"Neither do I. Well, just listen. The king here has three thousand
+dollars in cash and three thousand dollars' worth of coconut ile and
+turtle-shell. Now, if you and I will help him to do a bit of fightin'
+it's ours. The money and shell is here in this room, the ile is in the
+sheds near by. If you agree, the king will hand us over the money now,
+and we can ship the ile in the morning."
+
+Ross thought a moment, then he said suspiciously--
+
+"Why are you giving me a chance?"
+
+"Not from any feelin' of affection for you, mister," answered Cayse with
+his peculiar snarl, "but because I ain't able to do the whole business
+myself--if I could I wouldn't ask _you_ to come in. Now, I noticed this
+mornin' that you carry a big crew, and have six guns, and I reckon thet
+you hev to use 'em sometimes in your business?"
+
+Ross laughed grimly. "All of us sandalwooding ships carry a few
+nine-pounders as well as plenty of small arms. We are allowed to do so
+by the Governor of New South Wales."
+
+"Just so. Well, now, listen. This island is governed by two chiefs;
+this one here, Charlik, has most people, but the other lot, who live on
+the lee side of the island, rebelled against his father more'n ten years
+ago. They've had a good many fights, an' in the last one these Lele
+people got badly whipped. Charlik is the proper king, but ever since a
+white man named Ledyard went to live with the Leass� people, they've
+refused to pay tribute. This Ledyard is the cause of all the trouble,
+and he has taught his natives how to fight European fashion. There's
+only about six hundred of 'em altogether--men, women, and
+children--eh, Charlik?"
+
+The young chief nodded in assent.
+
+"Now, by a bit of luck, news came up the other day by one of Charlik's
+spies that Ledyard has gone away to Ponap� in a cutter he has built. It
+will take him two or three weeks to go there and back, and now is the
+time for Charlik to wipe out old scores--the Leass� people won't stand
+much of a chance agin' a night attack by three hundred of Charlik's
+people. If Ledyard was there it would be different."
+
+Ross soon made his decision. He was a man utterly without pity, and
+Cayse who, while inciting others to slaughter for the sake of his own
+gain, yet had some grains of compunction in his nature, almost shuddered
+when the master of the _Lucy May_ laughed hoarsely and said--
+
+"It's a bargain--just the thing that my crowd could tackle and carry
+through themselves. Two voyages ago me and my beauties wiped out every
+living soul on one of the Cartaret's Islands. I'll tell you the yarn
+some day. But look here, king, can't we make another deal about the
+women and children. Let me keep as many of them as I have room for
+aboard, and I'll pay for them in muskets and powder and bullets."
+
+"What do you want with them?"
+
+"Sell them to old Abba Dul, the king of the Pelews. I've done business
+with him before."
+
+Charlik called Kanka over to him, and the two spoke in low tones. Then
+the young ruler of Lele shook his head.
+
+"No. There must be but one left to live--the white man's wife. Now we
+shall count this money."
+
+The boxes were carried over directly under the rays of the lamps and
+opened, the bags containing the money lifted out, the coins counted, and
+then evenly divided between the two wolves.
+
+On the following morning the casks of oil were rolled down to the beach
+and rafted off to the two ships, and before dawn, on the fourth day,
+Ross and his fellow-ruffian sent word ashore to the king that all was
+ready, and that he and his fighting men could come on board at once and
+proceed on their dreadful mission.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+As the two captains and their ferocious young employer sat on the
+snow-white poop of the _Iroquois_ and discussed the plan of attack, the
+ship and barque kept closely together, so closely that North, who had
+not yet placed foot on board the sandalwooder, had now an opportunity of
+looking down upon her decks, and watching the actions of those who
+manned her. A more ragged and desperate looking lot of ruffians he had
+never seen in his life; and their wild, unkempt appearance was in
+perfect accord with the _Lucy May_ herself, whose dirty, yellow sides
+were stained from stem to stern with long streaks and broad patches of
+iron-rust. Aloft she was in as equally a bad condition, and North and
+his fellow-officers, used to the trimness and unceasing care of a
+whaleship's sails and running gear, looked with contempt at the disorder
+and neglect everywhere visible. On deck, however, some attempt at
+setting things ship-shape were being made by the two mates and
+boatswain, the six guns were being overhauled, and a pile of muskets
+lying on the main hatch were being examined and passed up to the poop
+one by one, to old Kanka, who was in command of the contingent of Lele
+natives on board the barque. Similar preparations with small arms were
+being made on board the _Iroquois_ by her crew which, largely composed
+of Chilenos, Portuguese, and Polynesians, had eagerly accepted the offer
+of twenty dollars for each man for a few hours' fighting. North alone
+had spoken against and tried to dissuade his fellow-officers from taking
+any active part in the expedition, but his remonstrances fell upon
+unheeding ears. The details of the scheme to surprise the unsuspecting
+inhabitants of the two villages had filled him with unutterable horror
+and indignation, and all sorts of wild plans formed in his brain to
+prevent the accomplishment of the cruel deed. For the consequences of
+such interference to himself he cared nothing. He was alone in the
+world, and had no thought beyond that of making enough money to enable
+him to one day buy a ship of his own. Once, as he passed the trio on the
+poop, and glanced at the smooth, olive-coloured features of the young
+king, who, with anticipative zest, was fondling a rifle which Ross had
+brought on board for him, he felt inclined to whip a belaying-pin out of
+the rail and bring it crashing down upon his skull. Had there been any
+other ship but the _Lucy May_ near, he would have left the _Iroquois_
+that moment. But help was coming to his troubled mind.
+
+An hour before sunset the two vessels ran into a little harbour, then
+called Port Lottin, but now known as South Harbour by the few wandering
+whalers which sometimes touch at the island. Here, ere it became dark,
+the natives, with fourteen of the _Lucy May's_ crew under Ross, were
+landed. They were to march at early morning, cross the mountain range
+which intervened between South Harbour and Leass�, and then, hidden by
+the dense forest, await the appearance of the ships off the doomed
+villages on the following afternoon. The six boats--two from the _Lucy
+May_ and four from the _Iroquois_--were to pull ashore as soon as the
+ships were off Leass� and take up positions, three to the north and
+three to the south, so as to cut off all who attempted to escape along
+the beaches from the attack which would be made by Ross. Charlik was to
+command one of the boat parties, Cayse the other, and should any canoes
+with fugitives attempt to gain the open sea, they were to be sunk by the
+_Lucy May's_ guns, for she was to anchor in such a position that an
+escaping canoe would have to pass within fifty yards of her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Eight bells had struck, and North, who had declined to join the captain
+and his fellow-officers at supper, was sitting in his cabin smoking and
+listening to the soft hum of the surf on the barrier reef a mile away.
+On deck all was quiet, only the fourth mate and three of the hands were
+keeping watch, the rest of the crew who were not turned in had gone
+ashore to witness a dance given by King Charlik's warriors.
+
+Suddenly he heard a footfall on the cabin deck, and then some one said
+in a low voice--
+
+"May I come in, sir?"
+
+North, recognising the voice as that of a young man named Macy, his own
+harpooner, at once bade him enter.
+
+Macy, a sunburnt, blue-eyed youth, closed the cabin door behind him, and
+held up his finger to enjoin silence.
+
+"I've only just now heard, sir, that you will not take a hand in this
+work which is going on. Neither will I, sir; for those damned savages
+are going to kill all the poor women and children. I've come to ask you
+what I'm to do if I'm ordered away in the boat? My God! Mr. North, must
+we all be turned into a gang of murderers like those fellows on the
+_Lucy May!_"
+
+The officer shook the young seaman's hand. "I for one will have no hand
+in it, my lad; and I wish there were more of us on board of our way of
+thinking. I wish we could leave the ship. I would rather die of thirst
+on the open ocean ... Macy, my lad, will you stand to me?"
+
+"Stand to you, sir! Aye, Mr. North. If you mean to take to our boat,
+sir, I am with you."
+
+"No," answered North in a whisper. "That, after all, would only save us
+two from being mixed up in this murderous business--I want to prevent it
+altogether. Have you heard how far it is across the island to this place
+Leass�?"
+
+"Seven miles, sir, over the mountains."
+
+"And twenty by the boats! Macy, I am determined to leave the ship
+to-night, cut across the island, and save the poor people from massacre.
+Will you come? We may pay for it with our lives."
+
+The harpooner raised his rough hand. "We must all die some day, sir."
+
+For some minutes they conversed in whispered tones; then Macy slipped on
+deck, and North took his pistols from their racks, filled his coat
+pockets with ammunition, and then followed him. His own boat was lying
+astern.
+
+Telling the cooper, who was the only one of the afterguard on deck, that
+he was going ashore to look at the dance, and that only Macy and another
+hand need come with him, North ordered the boat to be hauled alongside.
+A quarter of an hour later he and Macy stepped out upon the shore under
+the shadow of a high bluff, and quite out of view from Ross and his
+party, although the many camp-fires cast long lines of light across the
+sleeping waters of the little harbour.
+
+Informing the boat-keeper that they should return in a couple of hours,
+the two men first walked along the beach in the direction of the
+encampment. Then once out of sight from the boat, they struck inland
+into a deep valley through which, Macy said, a narrow track led up to
+the range, and then downwards to the two villages. After a careful
+search the track was found, and the bright stars shining through the
+canopy of leaves overhead gave them sufficient light to pursue their
+way. For two hours they toiled along through the silent forest, hearing
+no sound except now and then the affrighted rush of some startled wild
+boar, and, far distant, the dull cry of the ever-restless breakers upon
+the coral reef. At last the summit of the range was reached, and they
+sat down to rest upon the thick carpet of fallen leaves which covered
+the ground. Here North took a spirit-flask from his jacket, and Macy and
+he drank in turns.
+
+"Do you know, sir," said Macy, as he returned the flask to the officer,
+"that there's a white man living at this village?"
+
+"He's not there now, Macy. He's gone away to another island in his
+cutter."
+
+"I know that, sir. I've heard all about it from one of the chaps on the
+_Lucy May_. The man's name is Ledyard, and this young devil's-limb of a
+king hates him like poison--for two reasons. One is, that Ledyard, who
+settled in Leass� a few years ago, taught the people there how to use
+their muskets in a fight, when Charlik's father tried to destroy them
+time and again; the other is that his wife is a white woman--or almost a
+white woman, a Bonin Island Portuguese--and Charlik means to get her.
+When Ledyard comes back in his cutter he will walk into a trap, and be
+killed as soon as he steps ashore."
+
+North struck his hand upon the ground. "And to think that I have sailed
+with such a villain as Cayse, who--"
+
+"That's not all. Ledyard has two children. Charlik has given orders for
+them to be killed, as he says he only wants the woman! Ross, I believe,
+wanted him to spare 'em, but the young cut-throat said 'No.' I heard all
+this from two men--the chap from the _Lucy May_ and one of Charlik's
+fighting men, who speaks English and seems to have a soft place in his
+heart for Ledyard."
+
+The mate of the _Iroquois_ sprang to his feet. "The cold-blooded
+wretches! Come on, Macy. We _must_ get there in time."
+
+For another two hours they made steady progress through the darkened
+forest aisles, and then as they emerged out upon a piece of open
+country, they saw far beneath them the gleaming sea. And here, amidst a
+dense patch of pandanus palms, the path they had followed came to an
+end. Pushing their way through the thorny leaves, which tore the skin
+from their hands and faces, Macy exclaimed excitedly--
+
+"We're all right, sir. I can see a light down there. It must be a fire
+on the beach."
+
+Heedless of the unknown dangers of the deep descent, and every now and
+then tripping and falling over the roots of trees and fallen timber,
+they again came out into the open, and there, two hundred feet below
+them, they saw the high-peaked, saddle-backed houses of Leass� village
+standing clearly out in the starlight. But at this point their further
+progress was barred by a cliff, which seemed to extend for half a mile
+on both sides of them. Cautiously feeling their way along its ledge they
+sought in vain for a path.
+
+"We must hail them, Macy. There will be sure to be plenty of them who
+can speak a little English and show us the way to get down."
+
+Returning as quickly as possible to the spot immediately over the
+village, the officer gave a long, loud hail.
+
+"_Below there, you sleepers!_"
+
+The hoarse, shrieking notes of countless thousands of roosting
+sea-birds, as they rose in alarm from their perches in the forest trees,
+mingled with the barking of dogs from the village, and then came a wild
+cry of alarm from a human throat.
+
+Waiting for a few moments till the clamour had somewhat subsided, the
+two men again hailed in unison.
+
+"_Below there! Awake, you sleepers!_"
+
+Another furious outburst of yelping and barking--through which ran the
+quavering of voices of the affrighted natives--smote the stillness of
+the night. Then the bright light of torches of coconut leaves flashed
+below, nude figures ran swiftly to and fro among the houses, and then
+came a deep-voiced answering hail in English--
+
+"_Hallo there! Who hails_?"
+
+"Two white men," was the officer's quick reply. "We cannot get down.
+Bear a hand with a torch; we have lost the track." Then as something
+flashed across his mind, he added, "Who are you? Are you a white man?"
+
+"Yes. I am Tom Ledyard."
+
+"Thank God for that! Send a light quickly. You and your people are in
+deadly danger."
+
+In a few minutes the waiting men saw the gleam of torches amid the trees
+to their right, and presently a tall, bearded, white man appeared,
+followed by half a dozen natives. All were armed with muskets, whose
+barrels glinted and shone in the firelight.
+
+Springing forward to meet him, North told his story in as few words as
+possible.
+
+Ledyard's dark face paled with passion. "By heaven, they shall get a
+bloody welcome! Now, come, sir; follow me. You must need rest badly."
+
+As they passed through the village square, now lit up by many fires and
+filled with alarmed natives, Ledyard called out in his deep tones--
+
+"Gather ye together, my friends. The son of the Slaughterer is near.
+Send a man fleet of foot to M�ut and bid him tell Nena, the chief, and
+his head men to come to my house quickly, else in a little while our
+bones will be gnawed by Charlik's dogs."
+
+Then with North and Macy besides him, he entered his house, the largest
+in the village. A woman, young, slender, and fair-skinned, met them at
+the door. Behind her were some terrified native women, one of whom
+carried Ledyard's youngest child in her arms.
+
+"'Rita, my girl," said Ledyard, placing his hand on his wife's shoulder
+and speaking in English, "these are friends. They have come to warn us.
+That young hell-pup, Charlik, is attacking us tomorrow. But quick, girl,
+get something for these gentlemen to eat and drink."
+
+But North and the harpooner were too excited to eat, and, seated
+opposite their host, they listened eagerly to him as he told them of his
+plans to repel the attack; of the bitter hatred that for ten years had
+existed between the people of Leass� and the old king; and then--he set
+his teeth--how that S�, the friendly sister of the young king, had once
+sent a secret messenger to him telling him to guard his wife well, for
+her brother had made a boast that when Leass� and M�ut were given to the
+flames only Cerita should be spared.
+
+"Then, ten days ago, Mr. North, thinking that this young tiger-cub
+Charlik knew that these people here were well prepared to resist an
+attack, I left in my cutter on a trading voyage to Ponap�. Three days
+out the vessel began to make water so badly that I had to beat back. I
+only came ashore yesterday."
+
+He rose and walked to and fro, muttering to himself. Then he spoke
+again.
+
+"Mr. North, and you, my friend"--turning to Macy--"have saved me and
+those I love from a sudden and cruel death. What can I do to show my
+gratitude? You cannot now return to your ship; will you join your
+fortunes with mine? I have long thought of leaving this island and
+settling in Ponap�. There is money to be made there. Join me and be my
+partners. My cutter is now hauled up on the beach--if she were fit to go
+to sea we could leave the island to-night. But that cannot be done. It
+will take me a week to put her in proper repair--and to-morrow we must
+fight for our lives."
+
+North stretched out his hand. "Macy and I will stand by you, Ledyard. We
+do not want to ever put foot again on the deck of the _Iroquois_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The story of that day of bloodshed and horror, when Charlik and his
+white allies sought to exterminate the whole community, cannot here be
+told in _all_ its dreadful details. Seventy years have come and gone
+since then, and there are but two or three men now living on the island
+who can speak of it with knowledge as a tale of "the olden days when we
+were heathens." Let the rest of the tale be told in the words of one of
+those natives of Leass�, who, then a boy, fought side by side with
+Ledyard, North, and Macy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The sun was going westward in the sky when the two ships rounded the
+point and anchored in what you white men now call Coquille Harbour. We
+of Leass�, who watched from the shore, saw six boats put off, filled
+with men. There pulled inside the reef, and went to the right towards
+M�ut; three went to the left. Letya (Ledyard), with the two white
+strangers who had come to him in the night, and two hundred of our men,
+had long before gone into the mountains to await Charlik and his
+fighting men, and their white friends. They--Letya and the Leass�
+people--made a trap for Charlik's men in the forest. Charlik himself was
+in the boats with the other white men. He wanted to see the people of
+Leass� and M�ut driven into the water, so that he might shoot at them
+with a new rifle which K�sa or the other ship captain--I forget
+which--had given to him. But he wanted most of all to get Cerita, the
+wife of Letya, the white man. Only Cerita was to live. These were
+Charlik's words. He did not know that her husband had returned from the
+sea. Had he known that, he would not have given all his money and all
+his oil to the two white captains to help him to make Leass� and M�ut
+desolate and give our bones to his dogs to eat.
+
+"It was a great trap--the trap prepared by Letya; and Charlik's men and
+the white men with them fell in it. They fell as a stone falls in a deep
+well, and sinks and is no more seen of men.
+
+"This was the manner of the trap: The path down the cliff was between
+two high walls of rock; at the foot of the cliff was a thick clump of
+high pandanus trees growing closely together. In between these trees
+Letya built a high barrier of logs, encompassing the outlet of the path
+to Leass�. This barrier was a half circle; the two ends touched the edge
+of the cliff, and the centre was hidden among the pandanus trees. On the
+top of this barrier the men of Leass� waited with loaded muskets; lower
+down on the ground were others, they too had loaded muskets. On the top
+of the cliff where the path led down, fifty men were hidden. They were
+hidden in the thick scrub which we call _oap. Oap_ is a good thing in
+which to hide from an enemy, and then spring from and slay him suddenly.
+
+"I, who was then a boy, saw all this. I heard Letya, our white man, tell
+the head of our village that Charlik's men would enter into the trap and
+perish. Then kava was made, and Letya and the head men drank. Kava is
+good, but rum is better to make men fight. We had no rum, but we had
+great love for Letya and his wife, and his two children, and great hate
+for Charlik. So we said, 'If this is death, it is death,' and every man
+went to his post--some to the barrier at the foot of the cliff, and some
+to the thicket of _oap_ on the summit. Cerita, the wife of Letya the
+Englishman, was weeping. She was weeping because Nen�, the chief of
+M�ut, was waiting in the house to kill her if her husband should be
+slain. But she did not weep because of the fear of death; it was for her
+children she wept. That is the way of women. What is the life of a child
+to the life of a man?
+
+"Nen� was my father's brother. He was a brave man, but was too old to
+fight, for his eyes were dimmed by many years. So he sat beside Cerita
+and her two children, with a long knife in his hand and waited. He
+covered his face with a mat and waited. It was right for him to do this,
+for Letya was a great man; and his wife, although she was a foreigner,
+was an honoured woman. Therefore though Nen� might not look upon her
+face at other times, he could kill her if Letya said she must die. This
+was quite right and correct. A wife must be guided by her husband and do
+what is right and correct, and avoid scandal.
+
+"For many hours the women in the houses waited in silence. Then suddenly
+they heard the thunder of two hundred guns, and the roaring of voices,
+then more muskets. They ran out of the houses and looked up to the
+cliff, and lo! the sky was bright as day, for when Charlik's people and
+the white men walked into the trap in the darkness, Letya and our people
+set alight great heaps of dry leaves and scrub, which were placed all
+along the barrier of logs. This was done so that they could see better
+to shoot. There were thirty or forty of Charlik's men killed by that
+volley. The white man who was leading them was very brave; he tried to
+climb over the barrier, but fell back dead, for a man named Sru thrust a
+whale-lance into his heart. All this time the other white men and the
+rest of Charlik's people were firing their muskets, but their bullets
+only hit the heavy logs of the barrier, and Letya and our people killed
+them very easily by putting their muskets through the spaces. When the
+sailors saw their captain fall, they tried to run away, and the Lele
+warriors ran with them. But when they reached the path which led up
+between the cliff, it too was blocked, and many of them became jammed
+together between the walls, and these were all killed very easily--some
+with bullets, and some with big stones. Then those that were left ran
+round and found inside the trap, trying to get out. They were like rats
+in a cask, and our people kept killing them as they ran. Some of
+them--about thirty--did climb over, but all were killed, for when they
+jumped down on the other side our people were there waiting. At last
+four of the sailors made a big hole by tearing out two posts, and rushed
+out, followed by the Lele men. Letya was the first man to meet the
+sailors, and he told them to surrender. Two of them threw down their
+arms, but the other two ran at Letya, and one of them ran his cutlass
+into him. It went in at the stomach, and Letya fell. We killed all these
+white sailors, but some of the Lele men escaped. That was a great pity,
+but then how can these things be helped?" The two strange white men who
+were fighting beside Le|tya, picked him up, and they carried him into
+his house. He was not dead, but he said, 'I shall soon die, take me to
+my wife.' I did not go with them to the house. I went into the barrier
+with the other youths to kill the wounded. It is a foolish thing not to
+kill wounded men; they may get better and kill you. So we killed them.
+There were fourteen white men slain in that fight beside their captain.
+
+"Before it was daylight some of our men set out along the beach to look
+for the boats. They did not want to kill any more white men, but they
+did want to kill Charlik. They were very fortunate, for before they had
+gone far on their way they saw three of the boats coming along close in
+to the beach. So they hid behind some rocks. Charlik was in the first
+boat; he was standing in the bow pointing out the way. When he came very
+close they all fired together, and Charlik's life was gone. He fell dead
+into the sea. Then the boats all turned seaward, and pulled hard for the
+ships. Then before long, we saw the other three boats going back to the
+ships; in these last were four of Charlik's men who had escaped. The
+boats were quickly pulled up, and the ships sailed away, for those on
+board were terrified when they heard that all the white men they had
+sent to fight were dead.
+
+"Letya did not die at once--not for two days. Cerita his wife and two
+white men watched beside him all this time. Before he died he called the
+head men to him, and said that he gave his small ship to the two white
+men, together with many other things. All his money he gave to his wife,
+and told her she must go away with the white men, who would take her
+back to her own people. To the head men he gave many valuable things,
+such as tierces of tobacco and barrels of powder. This was quite right
+and proper, and showed he knew what was correct to do before he died. We
+buried him on the little islet over there called B�si.
+
+"The two white men and Cerita and her two children went away in the
+little ship. But they did not go to Cerita's country: they remained at
+Ponap�, and there the tall man of the two--the officer--married Cerita.
+All this we learnt a year afterwards from the captain of a whaling ship.
+It was quite right and proper for Letya's widow to marry so quickly, and
+to marry the man who had been a friend to her husband."
+
+
+
+
+_A Hundred Fathoms Deep_
+
+
+There is still a world or discovery open to the ichthyologist who, in
+addition to scientific knowledge, is a lover of deep-sea fishing, has
+some nerve, and is content to undergo some occasional rough experiences,
+if he elects to begin his researches among the many island groups of the
+North and South Pacific. I possessed, to some extent, the two latter
+qualifications; the former, much to my present and lasting regret, I did
+not. Nearly twenty-six years ago the vessel in which I sailed as
+supercargo was wrecked on Strong's Island, the eastern outlier of the
+fertile Caroline Archipelago, and for more than twelve months I devoted
+the greater part of my time to traversing the mountainous island from
+end to end, or, accompanied by a hardy and intelligent native, in
+fishing, either in the peculiarly-formed lagoon at the south end, or two
+miles or so outside the barrier reef.
+
+The master of the vessel, I may mention, was the notorious, over
+maligned, and genial Captain Bully Hayes, and from him I had learnt a
+little about some of the generally unknown deep-sea fish of Polynesia
+and Melanesia. He had told me that when once sailing between Aneityum
+and Tanna, in the New Hebrides, shortly after a severe volcanic eruption
+on the former island had been followed by a submarine convulsion, his
+brig passed through many hundreds of dead and dying fish of great size,
+some of which were of a character utterly unknown to any of his native
+crew--men who came from all parts of the North and South Pacific. More
+remarkable still, some of these fish had never before been seen by the
+inhabitants of the islands near which they were found. There were, he
+said, some five or six kinds, but they were all of the groper family.
+One of three which was brought on board was discovered floating on the
+surface when the ship was five miles off Tanna. A boat was lowered, but
+on getting up to it, the crew found they were unable to lift it from the
+water; it was, however, towed to the ship, hoisted on board, and cut
+into three parts, the whole of which were weighed, and reached over 300
+lbs. In colour it was a dull grey, with large, closely-adhering scales
+about the size of a florin; the fins, tail, and lips were blue. Another
+one, weighing less, had a differently-shaped head, with a curious,
+pipe-like mouth; this was a uniform dull blue. A similar upturning from
+the ocean's dark depths of strange fish occurred during a submarine
+earthquake near Rose Island, a barren spot to the south-west of Samoa.
+The disturbance threw up vast numbers of fish upon the reefs of Manua,
+the nearest island of the group, and the natives looked upon their great
+size and peculiar appearance with unbounded astonishment.
+
+Without desiring to bore the reader with unnecessary details of my own
+experiences in the South Seas, but because the statement bears on the
+subject of this article--a subject which has been my delight since I was
+a boy of ten years of age--I may say that, nine years after the loss of
+Captain Hayes's vessel on Strong's Island, I was again shipwrecked on
+Peru, one of the Gilbert, or, as we traders call them, the "Line"
+Islands. Here I was so fortunate as to take up my residence with one of
+the local traders, a Swiss named Frank Voliero, who was an ardent
+deep-sea fisherman, and whose catches were the envy and wonder of the
+wild and intractable natives among whom he lived; for he had excellent
+tackle, which enabled him to fish at depths seldom tried by the natives,
+who have no reason to go beyond sixty or eighty fathoms. In the long
+interval that had elapsed since my fishing days in the Carolines and my
+arrival at Peru Island, I had gained such experience in my hobby in many
+other parts of the Pacific as falls to few men, and the desire to fish
+in deep water, and get something that astonished the natives of the
+various islands, had become a passion with me. Voliero and myself went
+out together frequently, and, did space permit, I should like to
+describe the fortune that attended us at Peru, as well as my fishing
+adventures at Strong's Island.
+
+In a former work I have endeavoured to describe that extraordinary
+nocturnal-feeding fish, the _palu_, and the manner of its capture by
+the Malayo-Polynesian islanders of the Equatorial Pacific, and in the
+present article I shall try to convey to my readers an idea of deep-sea
+fishing in the South Seas generally. When I was living on the little
+island of Nanomaga (one of the Ellice Group, situated about 600 miles to
+the north-west of Samoa), as the one resident trader, I found myself
+in--if I may use the term--a marine paradise, as far as fishing went.
+The natives were one and all expert fishermen, extremely jealous of
+their reputation of being not only the best and most skilful men in
+Polynesia in the handling of their frail canoes in a heavy surf, but
+also of being deep-learned in the lore of deep-sea fishing.
+
+My arrival at the island caused no little commotion among the young
+bloods, each of whose chances of gaining the girl of his heart, and
+being united to her by the local Samoan missionary teacher, depended in
+a great measure upon his ability to provide sustenance for her from the
+sea; for Nanomaga, like the rest of the Ellice Group, is but little more
+than a richly-verdured sandbank, based upon a foundation of coral, and
+yielding nothing to its people but coconuts and a coarse species of
+taro, called puraka. The inhabitants, in their low-lying atolls, possess
+no running streams, no fertile soil, in which, as in the mountainous
+isles of Polynesia, the breadfruit, the yam, and the sweet potato grow
+and flourish side by side with such rich and luscious fruits as the
+orange and banana, and pineapple--they have but the beneficent coconut
+and the evergiving sea to supply their needs. And the sea is kind to
+them, as Nature meant it to be to her own children.
+
+The native missionary at Nanomaga was a Samoan. He was intended by
+nature to be a warrior, a leader of men; or--and no higher praise can I
+give to his dauntless courage--a boat-header on a sperm whaler. Strong
+of arm and quick of eye, he was the very man to either throw the harpoon
+or deal the death-giving thrust or the lance to the monarch of the ocean
+world; but fate or circumstance had made him a missionary instead. He
+was a fairly good missionary, but a better fisherman.
+
+Three miles from Nanomaga is a submerged reef, marked on the chart as
+the Grand Coral Reef, but known to the natives as Tia Kau, "the reef."
+It is in reality a vast mountain of coral, whose bases lie two hundred
+fathoms deep, with a flattened summit of about fifty acres in extent,
+rising to within five fathoms of the surface of the sea. This spot is
+the resort of incredible numbers of fish, both deep-sea haunting and
+surface swimming. Some of the latter, such as the _pala_ (not the
+_palu_)--a long, scaleless, beautifully-formed fish, with a head of bony
+plates and teeth like a rip-saw--are of great size, and afford splendid
+sport, as they are game fighters and almost as powerful as a porpoise.
+They run to over 100 lbs., and yet are by no means a coarse fish. In the
+shallow water on the top of this mountain reef there are some eight or
+nine varieties of rock cod, none of which were of any great size; but
+far below, at a depth of from fifty to seventy fathoms, there were some
+truly monstrous fish of this species, and I and my missionary friend had
+the luck to catch the four largest ever taken--221 lbs., 208 lbs., 118
+lbs., and 111 lbs. I had caught when fishing for schnapper, in thirty
+fathoms off Camden Haven, on the coast of New South Wales, a mottled
+black and grey rock cod, which weighed 83 lbs., and was assured by the
+Sydney Museum authorities that such a weight for a rock cod was rare in
+that part of the Pacific, but that _b�che-de-mer_ fishermen on the Great
+Barrier Reef had occasionally captured fish of the same variety of
+double that size and weight.
+
+Not possessing a boat, we fished from a canoe--a light, but strong and
+beautifully constructed craft, with "whalebacks" fore and aft to keep it
+from being swamped by seas when facing or running from a surf. The
+outrigger was formed of a very light wood, called _pua_, about fourteen
+inches in circumference. With the teacher and myself there usually went
+with us a third man, whose duty it was to keep the canoe head to wind,
+for anchoring in deep water in such a tiny craft was out of the
+question, as well as dangerous, should a heavy fish or a shark get foul
+of the outrigger. Capsizes in the daytime we did not mind, but at night
+numbers of grey sharks were always cruising around, and they were then
+especially savage and daring.
+
+Leaving the pretty little village, which was embowered in a palm grove
+on the lee side of the island, we would, if intending to fish on the Tia
+Kau, make a start before dawn, remain there till the canoe was loaded to
+her raised gunwale pieces with the weight of fish, and then return.
+Night fishing on the Tia Kau by a single canoe was forbidden by the
+_kaupule_ (head men) as being too dangerous on account of the sharks,
+and so usually from ten to twenty canoes set out together. If one did
+come to grief through being swamped, or capsized by having the outrigger
+fouled by a shark, there was always assistance near at hand, and it
+rarely happened that any of the crew were bitten. In 1872, however, a
+fearful tragedy occurred on the Tia Kau, when a party of seventy
+natives--men, women, and children--who were crossing to the neighbouring
+Island of Nanomea, were attacked by sharks when overtaken on the reef by
+a squall at night. Only two escaped to tell the tale.[14]
+
+If, however, we meant to try for _takuo_, a huge variety of the
+mackerel-tribe, or _lahe'u_, a magnificent bream-shaped fish, we had no
+need to go so far as the dangerous Tia Kau; three or four cable-lengths
+from the beach, and right in front of the village, we could lie in water
+as smooth as glass, and seventy fathoms in depth. Our bait was
+invariably flying-fish, freshly caught, or the tentacles of an octopus.
+My lines were of white American cotton, and I generally used two hooks,
+one below and one above the sinker, both baited with a whole
+flying-fish, while my companions preferred wooden or iron hooks, of
+their own manufacture, and lines made from hibiscus bark or coconut
+fibre.
+
+I shall always remember with pleasure my first _lahe'u_. I was
+accompanied by the native teacher alone, and we paddled off from the
+village just after evening service, and brought to about a quarter of a
+mile outside the reef. The rest of the islanders had gone round in
+their canoes to the weather side of the little island to fish for
+_takuo_, for we were expecting a _malaga_, or party of visitors from the
+Island of Nukufetau in a day or two, and unusual supplies of fish had to
+be obtained, to sustain, not only the island's record as the fishing
+centre of the universe, but the people's reputation for hospitality. It
+had been my suggestion to the teacher that he and I, who were unable to
+accompany the others, should try what we could do nearer home. The night
+was brilliantly starlight, and the sea as smooth as glass--so smooth
+that there was not even the faintest swell upon the reef. The trade wind
+was at rest, and not the faintest breath of air moved the foliage of the
+coco palms lining the white strip of beach. Now and then a splash or a
+sudden commotion in the water around us would denote that some hapless
+flying-fish had taken an aerial flight from a pursuing _pala_, or that a
+shark had seized a turtle in his cruel jaws. Lighting our pipes, we
+lowered our lines together according to island etiquette, and touched
+bottom at thirty fathoms; then hauled in a fathom or two of line to
+avoid fouling the coral. In a few minutes my companion hooked an _utu_,
+a sluggish fish, somewhat like a salmon in appearance, with shining
+silvery scales and a broad flat head. As he was hauling in, and I was
+looking over the side of the canoe to watch it coming up, I felt a
+sharp, heavy tug at my own line, and, before I could check it, thirty or
+forty yards of line whizzed through my fingers with lightning speed.
+
+"_Lahe'u!_" shouted the teacher, hurriedly making his own line fast,
+and whipping up his paddle. "Don't give out any more line or he will run
+under the reef, and we shall lose him."
+
+I knew by the vibration and hum of the line as soon as I had it well in
+hand that there was a heavy and powerful fish at the end. Ioane,
+disregarding the _utu_ as being of no importance in comparison to a
+_lahe'u_, was plunging his paddle rapidly into the water, and
+endeavouring to back the canoe seaward into deeper water, but, in spite
+of his efforts and my own, we were being taken quickly inshore. For some
+two or three minutes the canoe was dragged steadily landward, and I knew
+that once the _lahe'u_ succeeded in getting underneath the overhanging
+ledge of reef, there would be but little chance of our taking him except
+by diving, and diving on a moonless night under a reef, and freeing a
+fish from jagged branches of coral, is not a pleasant task, although an
+Ellice Islander does not much mind it. Finding that I could not possibly
+turn the fish, I asked Ioane what I should do. He told me to let go a
+few fathoms of line, brace my knee against the thwart, and then trust to
+the sudden jerk to cant the fish's head one way or the other. I did as I
+was told. Out flew the line, and then came a shock that made the canoe
+fairly jump, lifted the outrigger clear out of the water, and all but
+capsized her. But the ruse was successful, for, with a furious shake,
+_lahe'u_ changed his course, and started off at a tremendous rate,
+parallel with the reef, and then gradually headed seaward.
+
+"Let him go," said Ioane, who was carefully watching the tautened-out
+line, and steering at the same time. "'Tis a strong fish, but he is _man
+tonu_ (truly hooked), and will now tire. But give him no more line, and
+haul up to him."
+
+For fully five minutes the canoe went flying over the water, and I
+continued to haul in line fathom by fathom, until I caught sight of,
+deep down in the water right ahead, a great phosphorescent boil and
+bubble. Then the pace began to slacken, as the gallant fighter began to
+turn from side to side, shaking his head and making futile breaks from
+port to starboard. Bidding me come amidships with the line, Ioane took
+in his paddle, and picked up the harpoon which we always carried on the
+outrigger platform in case of meeting a turtle. Nearer and nearer came
+the great fish, till, with a splash of phosphorescent light and spray,
+he came to the surface, beating the water with his forked and bony tail,
+and still trying to get a chance for another downward run. Then Ioane,
+waiting his opportunity, sent the iron clean through him from side to
+side, and I sat down and watched, with a thrill of satisfaction and a
+sigh of relief, his final flurry. In a few minutes we hauled him
+alongside, drew the harpoon, and with some difficulty managed to get him
+over the side and lower him into the bottom of the canoe amidships,
+where he lay fore and aft, his curved back standing up nearly a foot and
+a half above the raised gunwale. Although not above four feet in length,
+he was nearly three in depth, and about sixteen inches thick at the
+shoulder--a truly noble fish.
+
+"We have done well," said the teacher, with a pleased laugh, as he
+hauled in his own line and dropped a 6-lb. _utu_ into the canoe. "There
+will be much talk over this to-morrow, for these people here are very
+conceited, and think that no one but themselves can catch _lahe'u_ and
+_pala_. They will know better now, when they see this one."
+
+We returned to the shore within two hours from the time we left, with my
+_lahe'u_, an _utu_, and five or six salmon-like fish called _tau-tau_,
+all nocturnal feeders, and all highly thought of by the natives,
+especially the latter. The _lahe'u_ we hung up under the missionary's
+verandah, and at daylight I had the intense satisfaction of seeing a
+crowd of natives surrounding it, and of hearing their flattering
+allusions to myself as a _papalagi masani tonu futi �ka_--a white man
+who really could fish like a native.
+
+
+
+
+_On a Tidal River_
+
+
+The English visitor to the Eastern Colonies of Australia who is in
+search of sport with either rod or hand line can always obtain excellent
+fishing in the summer months even in such traffic-disturbed harbours as
+Sydney, Newcastle, and other ports; but on the tidal rivers of the
+eastern and southern seaboard he can, every day, catch more fish than he
+can carry during seven months of the year. In the true winter months
+deep sea fishing is not much favoured, except during the prevalence of
+westerly winds, when, for days at a time, the Pacific is as smooth as a
+lake; but in the rivers, from Mallacoota Inlet, which is a few miles
+over the Victorian boundary, to the Tweed River on the north of New
+South Wales, the stranger may fairly revel not only in the delights of
+splendid fishing but in the charms of beautiful scenery. He needs no
+guide, will be put to but little expense, for the country hotel
+accommodation is good and cheap; and, should he visit some of the
+northern rivers where the towns, or rather small settlements, are few
+and far between, he will find the settlers the embodiment of British
+hospitality.
+
+Some three years ago the writer formed one of the crew of a little
+steamer of fifty tons named the _Jenny Lind_, which was sent out along
+the coast in the endeavour to revive the coast whaling industry. Through
+stress of weather we had frequently to make a dash for shelter, towing
+our sole whaleboat, to one of the many tidal rivers on the coast between
+Sydney and Gabo Island. Here we would remain until the weather broke,
+and our crew would literally cover the deck with an extraordinary
+variety of fish in the course of a few hours. Then, at low tide, we
+could always fill a couple of cornsacks with excellent oysters, and get
+bucketfuls of large prawns by means of a scoop net improvised from a
+piece of mosquito netting; game, too, was very plentiful on the lagoons.
+The settlers were generally glad to see us, and gave us so freely of
+milk, butter, pumpkins, &c., that, despite the rough handling we always
+got at sea from the weather, we grew quite fat. But as the greater part
+of my fishing experience was gained on the northern rivers of the colony
+of N.S. Wales it is of them I shall write.
+
+Eighteen hours' run by steamer from Sydney is the Hastings River, on the
+southern bank of which, a mile from the bar, is the old-time town of
+Port Macquarie, a quaint, sleepy little place of six hundred
+inhabitants, who spend their days in fishing and sleeping and waiting
+for better times. There are two or three fairly good hotels, very pretty
+scenery along the coast and up the river, and a stranger can pass a
+month without suffering from ennui--that is, of course, if he be fond
+of fishing and shooting; if he is not he should avoid going there, for
+it is the dullest coast town in New South Wales. The southern shore,
+from the steamer wharf to opposite the bar, is lined with a hard beach,
+on which at high tide, or slack water at low tide, one may sit down in
+comfort and have great sport with bream, whiting, and flathead. As soon
+as the tide turns, however, and is well on the ebb or flow, further
+fishing is impossible, for the river rushes out to sea with great
+velocity, and the incoming tide is almost as swift. On the other side of
+the harbour is a long, sandy point, called the North Shore, about a mile
+in length. This, at the north end, is met by a somewhat dense scrub,
+which lines the right bank of the river for a couple of miles, and
+affords a splendid shade to any one fishing on the river bank. The outer
+or ocean beach is but a few minutes' walk from the river, and a
+magnificent beach it is, trending in one great unbroken curve to Point
+Plomer, seven miles from the township.
+
+Before ascending the river on a fishing trip one has to provide one's
+self with a plentiful supply of cockles, or "pippies," as they are
+called locally. These can only be obtained on the northern ocean beach,
+and not the least enjoyable part of a day's sport consists in getting
+them. They are triangular in shape, with smooth shells of every
+imaginable colour, though a rich purple is commonest. As the back wash
+leaves the sands bare these bivalves may be seen in thick but irregular
+patches protruding from the sand. Sometimes, if the tide is not low
+enough, one may get rolled over by the surf if he happen to have his
+back turned seaward. Generally I was accompanied by two boys, known as
+"Condon's Twins." They were my landlord's sons, and certainly two of the
+smartest young sportsmen--although only twelve years old--ever met with.
+Both were very small for their age, and I was always in doubt as to
+which was which. They were always delighted to come with me, and did not
+mind being soused by a roller now and then when filling my "pippy" bag.
+Pippies are the best bait one can have for whiting (except prawns) in
+Australia, for, unlike the English whiting, it will not touch fish bait
+of any sort, although, when very hungry, it will sometimes take to
+octopus flesh. Bream (whether black or silvery), flathead, trevally,
+jew-fish, and, indeed, all other fish obtained in Australia, are not so
+dainty, for, although they like "pippies" and prawns best, they will
+take raw meat, fish, or octopus bait with readiness. Certain species of
+sea and river mullet are like them in this respect, and good sport may
+be had from them with a rod in the hot months, as Dick and Fred, the
+twins aforesaid, well knew, for often would their irate father
+wrathfully ask them why they wasted their time catching "them worthless
+mullet."
+
+But let me give an idea of one of many days' fishing on the Hastings,
+spent with the "Twins." Having filled a sugar bag with "pippies" on the
+ocean beach, we put on our boots and make our way through the belt of
+scrub to where our boat is lying, tied to the protruding roots of a
+tree. Each of us is armed with a green stick, and we pick our way pretty
+carefully, for black snakes are plentiful, and to tread on one may mean
+death. The density of the foliage overhead is such that but little
+sunlight can pierce through it, and the ground is soft to our feet with
+the thick carpet of fallen leaves beneath. No sound but the murmuring of
+the sea and the hoarse notes of countless gulls breaks the silence, for
+this side of the river is uninhabited, and its solitude disturbed only
+by some settler who has ridden down the coast to look for straying
+cattle, or by a fishing party from the town. Our boat, which we had
+hauled up and then tied to the tree, is now afloat, for the tide has
+risen, and the long stretches of yellow sandbanks which line the channel
+on the farther side are covered now with a foot of water. As we drift up
+the river, eating our lunch, and letting the boat take care of herself,
+a huge, misshapen thing comes round a low point, emitting horrid
+groanings and wheezings. It is a steam stern-wheel punt, loaded with
+mighty logs of black-butt and tallow wood, from fifty feet to seventy
+feet in length, cut far up the Hastings and the Maria and Wilson Rivers,
+and destined for the sawmill at Port Macquarie.
+
+In another hour we are at our landing-place, a selector's abandoned
+homestead, built of rough slabs, and standing about fifty yards back
+from the river and the narrow line of brown, winding beach. The roof had
+long since fallen in, and the fences and outbuildings lay low, covered
+with vines and creepers. The intense solitude of the place, the
+motionless forest of lofty grey-boled swamp gums that encompassed it on
+all sides but one, and the wide stretch of river before it were
+calculated to inspire melancholy in any one but an ardent fisherman.
+Scarcely have we hauled our boat up on the sand, and deposited our
+provisions and water in the roofless house, when we hear a commotion in
+the river--a swarm of fish called "tailer" are making havoc among a
+"school" of small mullet, many of which fling themselves out upon the
+sand. Presently all is quiet again, and we get our lines ready.
+
+For whiting and silvery bream rather fine lines are used, but we each
+have a heavy line for flathead, for these fish are caught in the tidal
+rivers on a sandy bottom up to three feet and four feet in length. They
+are in colour, both on back and belly, much like a sole, of great width
+across the shoulders, and then taper away to a very fine tail. The head
+is perfectly flat, very thin, and armed on each side with very sharp
+bones pointing tailward; a wound from one of these causes intense
+inflammation. The fins are small--so small as to appear almost
+rudimentary--yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with
+amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the
+shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize
+their prey in their enormous "gripsack" mouths. The approach of a boat
+or a person walking along the sand will cause them to at once speed like
+lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud
+which is washed off their backs in their flight. Still, although not a
+pleasing fish to look at, the flathead is of a delicious and delicate
+flavour. There are some variations in their shades of colour, from a
+pale, delicate grey to a very dark brown, according to their habitat,
+and, although most frequent in very shallow water, they are often caught
+in great quantities off the coast in from ten to fifteen fathoms of
+water. Gut or wire snoodings are indispensable when fishing for
+flathead, else the fish invariably severs the line with his fine
+needle-pointed teeth, which are set very closely together. Nothing comes
+amiss to them as food, but they have a great love for small mullet or
+whiting, or a piece of octopus tentacle.
+
+Baiting our heavy lines with mullet--two hooks with brass-wire snoods to
+each line--we throw out about thirty yards, then, leaving two or three
+fathoms loose upon the shore, we each thrust a stick firmly into the
+sand, and take a turn of the line round it. As the largest flathead
+invariably dart upon the bait, and then make a bolt with it, this plan
+is a good one to follow, unless, of course, they are biting freely; in
+that case the smaller lines for bream and whiting, &c., are hauled in,
+for there is more real sport in landing an 8-lb. flathead than there is
+in catching smaller fish, for he is very game, and fights fiercely for
+his life.
+
+Having disposed our big lines, we bait the smaller ones with "pippies,"
+and not two minutes at the outside elapse after the sinkers have touched
+bottom when we know we are to have a good time, for each of us has
+hooked a fish, and three whiting are kicking on the sand before five
+minutes have expired. Then for another hour we throw out and haul in
+again as quickly as possible, landing whiting from 6 oz. to nearly 2
+lbs. in weight. One of the "Twins" has three hooks on his line, and
+occasionally lands three fish together, and now and again we get small
+bream and an occasional "tailer" of 2 lbs. or 3 lbs. As the sun mounts
+higher the breeze dies away, the heat becomes very great, and we have
+frequent recourse to our water jar--in one case mixing it with whisky.
+Then the whiting cease to bite as suddenly as they have begun, and move
+off into deeper water. Just as we are debating as to whether we shall
+take the boat out into mid-stream, Twin Dick gives a yell as his stick
+is suddenly whipped out of the sand, and the loose line lying beside it
+rushes away into the water. But Dick is an old hand, and lets his fish
+have his first bolt, and then turns him. "By Jingo! sir, he's a big
+fellow," he cries, as he hauls in, the line now as taut as a telegraph
+wire, and then the other twin comes to his aid, and in a few minutes the
+outline of the fish is seen, coming in straight ahead as quick as they
+can pull him. When he is within ten feet of the beach the boys run up
+the bank and land him safely, as he turns his body into a circle in his
+attempts to shake out the hook. Being called upon to estimate his
+weight, I give it as 11 lbs., much to the twins' sorrow--they think it
+15 lbs.
+
+Half an hour passes, and we catch but half a dozen silvery bream and
+some small baby whiting, for now the sun is beating down upon our heads,
+and our naked feet begin to burn and sting, so we adjourn to the old
+house and rest awhile, leaving our big lines securely tied. But, though
+the breeze for which we wait comes along by two o'clock, the fish do
+not, and so, after disinterring our takes from the wet sand wherein we
+had buried them as caught to prevent them being spoilt by the sun, we
+get aboard again and pull across to the opposite bank of the river.
+Here, in much deeper water, about fifteen feet right under the clayey
+bank, we can see hundreds of fine bream, and now and then some small
+jew-fish. Taking off our sinkers, we have as good and more exciting
+sport among the bream than we had with the whiting, catching between
+four and five dozen by six o'clock. Then, after boiling the billy and
+eating some fearfully tough corned meat, we get into the boat again,
+hoist our sail, and land at the little township just after dark.
+
+Such was one of many similar day's sport on the Hastings, which, with
+the Bellinger, the Nambucca, the Macleay, and the Clarence, affords good
+fishing practically all the year round. Then, besides these tidal
+rivers, there are at frequent intervals along the coast tidal lagoons
+and "blind" creeks where fish congregate in really incredible
+quantities. Such places as Lake Illawarra and Lake Macquarie are fishing
+resorts well known to the tourist; but along the northern coast, where
+the population is scantier, and access by rail or steamer more
+difficult, there is an absolutely new field open to the sportsman--in
+fact, these places are seldom visited for either fishing or shooting by
+people from Sydney. During November and December the bars of these
+rivers are literally black with incredible numbers of coarse
+sea-salmon--a fish much like the English sea-bass--which, making their
+way over the bars, swim up the rivers and remain there for about a week.
+Although these fish, which weigh from 6 lbs. to 10 lbs., do not take a
+bait and are rather too coarse to eat, their roes are very good,
+especially when smoked. They are captured with the greatest of ease,
+either by spearing or by the hand; for sometimes they are in such dense
+masses that they are unable to manoeuvre in small bays; and the urchins
+of coastal towns hail their yearly advent with delight. They usually
+make their first appearance about the second week in November, and are
+always followed by a great number of very large sharks and saw-fish,
+which commit dreadful havoc in their serried and helpless ranks.
+Following the sea-salmon, the rivers are next visited in January by
+shoals of very large sea-mullet--blue-black backs, silvery bellies and
+sides, and yellow fins and tails. These, too, will not take a bait, but
+are caught in nets, and, if a steamer happens to be on the eve of
+leaving for Sydney, many hundreds of baskets are sent away; but they
+barely pay the cost of freight and commission, I believe. There are
+several varieties of sea-mullet, one or two of which will take the hook
+freely, and I have often caught them off the rocky coast of New South
+Wales with a rod when the sea has been smooth. The arrival of the big
+sea-mullet denotes that the season for jew-fish is at its height; and if
+the stranger to Australian waters wants exciting sport let him try
+jew-fishing at night. In deep water off the coast these great fish are
+occasionally caught during daylight, but a dull, cloudy night is best,
+when they may be caught from the beach or river bank in shallow water.
+Very stout lines and heavy hooks are used, for a 90-lb. or l00-lb.
+jew-fish is very common. Baiting with a whole mullet or whiting, or one
+of the tentacles of an octopus, the most amateurish fisherman cannot
+fail to hook two or three jew-fish in a night. (Even in Sydney harbour I
+have seen some very large ones caught by people fishing from ferry
+wharves.) They are very powerful, and also very game, and when they rise
+to the surface make a terrific splashing. At one place on the Hastings
+River, called Blackman's Point, a party of four of us took thirteen
+fish, the heaviest of which was 42 lbs. and the lightest 9 lbs. Next
+morning, however, the Blackman's Point ferryman, who always set a line
+from his punt when he turned in, showed us one of over 70 lbs. When they
+grow to such a size as this they are not eaten locally, as the flesh is
+very often full of thin, thread-like worms. The young fish, however, are
+very palatable.
+
+The saw-fish, to which I have before alluded as harrying the swarms of
+sea-salmon, also make havoc with the jew-fish, and very often are caught
+on jew-fish lines. They are terrible customers to get foul of (I do not
+confound them with the sword-fish) when fishing from a small boat. Their
+huge bone bill, set on both sides with its terrible sharp spikes, their
+great length, and enormous strength, render it impossible to even get
+them alongside, and there is no help for it but either to cut the line
+or pull up anchor and land the creature on the shore. Even then the task
+of despatching one of these fish is no child's play on a dark night, for
+they lash their long tails about with such fury that a broken leg might
+be the result of coming too close. In the rivers of Northern Queensland
+the saw-fish attain an enormous size, and the Chinese fishermen about
+Cooktown and Townsville often have their nets destroyed by a saw-fish
+enfolding himself in them. Alligators, by the way, do the same thing
+there, and are sometimes captured, perfectly helpless, in the folds of
+the nets, in which they have rolled themselves over and over again,
+tearing it beyond repair with their feet, but eventually yielding to
+their fate.
+
+The schnapper, the best of all Australian fish, is too well known to
+English visitors to describe in detail. Most town-bred Australians
+generally regard it as a purely ocean-loving fish, or at least only
+frequenting very deep waters in deep harbours, such as Sydney, Jervis
+Bay, and Twofold Bay. This is quite a mistake, for in many of the
+rivers, twenty or more miles up from the sea, the writer and many other
+people have not only caught these beautiful fish, but seen fishermen
+haul in their nets filled with them. But they seldom remain long,
+preferring the blue depths of ocean to the muddy bottoms of tidal
+rivers, for they are rock-haunting and surf-loving.
+
+Of late years the northern bar harbours and rivers of New South Wales
+have been visited by a fish that in my boyhood's days was unknown even
+to the oldest fisherman--the bonito. Although in shape and size they
+exactly resemble the ocean bonito of tropic seas, these new arrivals are
+lighter in colour, with bands of marbled grey along the sides and belly.
+They bite freely at a running bait--_i.e.,_ when a line is towed astern,
+and are very good when eaten quite fresh, but, like all of the mackerel
+tribe, rapidly deteriorate in a few hours after being caught. The
+majority of the coast settlers will not eat them, being under the idea
+that, as they are all but scaleless, they are "poisonous." This silly
+impression also prevails with regard to many other scaleless fish on the
+Australian coast, some of which, such as the trevally, are among the
+best and most delicate in flavour. The black and white rock cod is also
+regarded with aversion by the untutored settlers of the small coast
+settlements, yet these fish are sold in Sydney, like the schnapper, at
+prohibitive prices.
+
+In conclusion, let me advise any one who is contemplating a visit to
+Australia, and means to devote any of his time to either river or sea
+fishing, to take his rods with him; all the rest of his tackle he can
+buy as cheap in the colonies as he can in England. Rods are but little
+used in salt-water fishing in Australia, and are rather expensive. Those
+who do use a rod are usually satisfied with a bamboo--a very good rod
+it makes, too, although inconvenient to carry when travelling--but the
+generality of people use hand lines. And the visitor must not be
+persuaded that he can always get good fishing without going some
+distance from Sydney or Melbourne. That there is some excellent sport to
+be obtained in Port Jackson in summer is true, but it is lacking in a
+very essential thing--the quietude that is dear to the heart of every
+true fisherman.
+
+
+
+
+_Denison Gets Another Ship_
+
+
+Owing to reduced circumstances, and a growing hatred of the hardships of
+the sea, young Tom Denison (ex-supercargo of the South Sea Island
+trading schooner _Palestine_) had sailed from Sydney to undertake the
+management of an alleged duck-farm in North Queensland. The ducks, and
+the vast area of desolation in which they suffered a brief existence,
+were the property of a Cooktown bank, the manager of which was Denison's
+brother. He was a kind-hearted man, who wanted to help Tom along in the
+world, and, therefore, was grieved when at the end of three weeks the
+latter came into Cooktown humping his swag, smoking a clay pipe, and
+looking exceedingly tired, dirty, and disreputable generally. However,
+all might have gone well even then had not Mrs. Aubrey Denison, the
+brother's wife, unduly interfered and lectured Tom on his "idle and
+dissolute life," as she called it, and made withering remarks about the
+low tastes of sailors other than captains of mail steamers or officers
+in the Navy. Tom, who intended to borrow �10 from his brother to pay his
+passage back to Sydney to look for a ship, bore it all in silence, and
+then said that he should like to give up the sea and become a
+missionary in the South Seas, where he was "well acquainted with the
+natives."
+
+Mrs. Aubrey (who was a very refined young lady) smiled contemptuously,
+and turned down the corners of her pretty little mouth in a manner that
+made the unsuccessful duck-farmer boil with suppressed fury, as she
+remarked that _she_ had heard of some of the shocking stories he had
+been telling the accountant and cashier of the _characters_ of the
+people in the South Seas, and _she_ quite understood _why_ he wished to
+return there and re-associate with his vulgar and wicked companions.
+Now, she added, had he stuck bravely to work with the ducks, the Bank
+(she uttered the word "Bank" in the tone of reverence as one would say
+"The Almighty") would have watched his career with interest, and in time
+his brother would have used his influence with the General Manager to
+obtain a position for him, Tom Denison, in the Bank itself! But, judging
+from _her_ knowledge of his (Tom's) habits and disposition, she would be
+doing wrong to hold out the slightest hope for him now, and------
+
+"Look here, Maud, you're only twenty-two--two years older than me, and
+you talk like an old grandmother;" and then his wrath overpowered his
+judgment--"and you'll look like one before you're twenty-five. Don't you
+lecture _me_. I'm not your husband, _thank Heaven above_! And damn the
+bank and its carmine ducks." (He did not say "carmine," but I study the
+proprieties, and this is not a sanguinary story.)
+
+From the weatherboard portals of the bank Tom strode out in undisguised
+anger, and obtained employment on a collier, discharging coals. Then, by
+an extraordinary piece of good luck, he got a billet as proof-reader on
+the North Queensland _Trumpet Call_, from which, after an exciting three
+weeks, he was dismissed for "general incompetency and wilful neglect of
+his duties." So with sorrow in his heart he had turned to the
+ever-resourceful sea again for a living. He worked his passage down to
+Sydney in an old, heart-broken, wheezing steamer named the _You Yangs_,
+and stepped jauntily ashore with sixteen shillings in his pocket, some
+little personal luggage rolled up in his blanket, and an unlimited
+confidence in his own luck.
+
+Two vessels were due from the South Sea Islands in about a month, and as
+the skippers were both well known to and were on friendly terms with
+him, he felt pretty certain of getting a berth as second mate or
+supercargo on one of them. Then he went to look for a quiet lodging.
+
+This was soon found, and then realising the fact that sixteen shillings
+would not permit him viewing the sights of Sydney and calling upon the
+Governor, as is the usual procedure with intellectual and dead-broke
+Englishmen who come to Australia with letters of introduction from
+people who are anxious to get rid of them, he tried to get temporary
+employment by applying personally at the leading warehouses and
+merchants' offices. The first day he failed; also the second. On the
+third day the secretary of a milk company desired him to call again in
+three days. He did, and was then told by the manager that he "might
+have something" for him in a month or two. This annoyed Tom, as he had
+put on his sole clean collar that morning to produce a good impression.
+He asked the official if six months would not suit him better, as he
+wanted to go away on a lengthy fishing trip with the Attorney-General.
+The manager looked at him in a dignified manner, and then bade him an
+abrupt good-day.
+
+A week passed. Funds were getting low. Eight shillings had been paid in
+advance for his room, and he had spent five in meals. But he was not
+despondent; the _Susannah Booth_, dear, comfortable old wave-puncher,
+beloved of hard-up supercargoes, was due in a week, and, provided he
+could inspire his landlady with confidence until then, all would be
+well.
+
+But the day came when he had to spend his last shilling, and after a
+fruitless endeavour to get a job on the wharves to drive one of the many
+steam winches at work discharging cargo from the various ships, he
+returned home in disgust.
+
+That night, as he sat cogitating in his bedroom over his lucklessness,
+his eye fell on a vegetable monstrosity from Queensland, presented to
+him by one of the hands on board the _You Yangs_. It was a huge, dried
+bean-pod, about four feet long, and contained about a dozen large black
+beans, each about the size of a watch. He had seen these beans, after
+the kernels were scooped out, mounted with silver, and used as
+match-boxes by bushmen and other Australian gentry. It at once occurred
+to him that he might sell it. Surely the thing ought to be worth at
+least five shillings.
+
+In two minutes he was out in the street, but to his disgust found most
+of the shops closed, except the very small retail establishments.
+
+Entering a little grocery store, he approached the proprietor, a man
+with a pale, gargoyle-like face, and unpleasant-looking, raggedy teeth,
+and showing him the bean, asked him to buy it.
+
+The merchant looked at it with some interest and asked Tom what it was
+called.
+
+Tom said it was a _Locomotor Ataxy_. (He didn't know what a _locomotor
+ataxy_ was; but it sounded well, and was all the Latin he knew, having
+heard from his mother that a dissolute brother of hers had been
+afflicted with that complaint, superinduced by spirituous liquors.)
+
+The grocer-man turned the vegetable over and over again in his hand, and
+then asked the would-be vendor if he had any more. Tom said he hadn't.
+The _locomotor ataxy_, he remarked, was a very rare bean, and very
+valuable. But he would sell it cheap--for five shillings.
+
+"Don't want it," said the man rudely, pushing it away contemptuously.
+"It's only a faked-up thing anyway, made of paper-mashy."
+
+Tom tried to convince him that the thing was perfectly genuine, and
+actually grew on a vine in North Queensland; but the Notre Dame
+gargoyle-featured person only heard him with a snort of contempt. It was
+obvious he wouldn't buy it. So, sneeringly observing to the grocer that
+no doubt five shillings was a large sum for a man in such a small way of
+business as he was, Tom went out again into the cold world.
+
+He tried several other places, but no one would even look at the thing.
+After vainly tramping about for over two hours, he turned away towards
+his lodging, feeling very dispirited, and thinking about breakfast.
+
+Turning up a side street called Queen's Place, so as to make a short cut
+home, he espied in a dimly-lighted little shop an old man and a boy
+working at the cobbler trade. They had honest, intelligent faces, and
+looked as if they wanted to buy a _locomotor ataxy_ very badly. He
+tapped at the door and then entered.
+
+"Would you like to buy this?" he said to the old man. He did not like to
+repeat his foolish Latin nonsense, for the old fellow had such a worn,
+kindly face, and his honest, searching eyes met his in such a way that
+he felt ashamed to ask him to buy what could only be worthless rubbish
+to him.
+
+The cobbler looked at the monstrosity wonderingly. "'Tis a rare big
+bean," he said, in the trembling quaver of old age, and with a mumbling
+laugh like that of a pleased child. "I'll give you two shillin's for it.
+I suppose you want money badly, or else you wouldn't be wanderin' about
+at ten o'clock at night tryin' to sell it. I hope you come by it honest,
+young man?"
+
+Tom satisfied him on this score, and then the ancient gave him the two
+shillings. Bidding him good-night, Tom returned home and went to bed.
+
+(Quite two years after, when Denison returned to Sydney from the South
+Seas with more money "than was good for his moral welfare," as his
+sister-in-law remarked, he sought out the old cobbler gentleman and
+bought back his _locomotor ataxy_ bean for as many sovereigns as he had
+been given shillings for it.)
+
+Next morning he was down at the wharves before six o'clock, smoking his
+pipe contentedly, after breakfasting sumptuously at a coffee-stall for
+sixpence. There was a little American barque lying alongside the
+Circular Quay, and some of the hands were bending on her head-sails. Tom
+sat down on the wharf stringer dangling his feet and watching them
+intently. Presently the mate appeared on the poop, smoking a cigar. He
+looked at Tom critically for a moment or so, and then said--
+
+"Looking for a ship, young feller?"
+
+The moment Tom heard him speak, he jumped to his feet, for he knew the
+voice, last heard when the possessor of it was mate of the island
+trading schooner _Sadie Caller_, a year before in Samoa.
+
+"Is that you, Bannister?" he cried.
+
+"Reckon 'taint no one else, young feller. Why, Tom Denison, is it you?
+Step right aboard."
+
+Tom was on the poop in an instant, the mate coming to him with
+outstretched hand.
+
+"What's the matter, Tom? Broke?"
+
+"Stony!"
+
+"Sit down here and tell me all about it. I heard you had left the
+_Palestine_. Say, sling that dirty old pipe overboard, and take one of
+these cigars. The skipper will be on deck presently, and the sight of it
+would rile him terrible. He hez his new wife aboard, and she considers
+pipes ez low-down."
+
+Tom laughed as he thought of Mrs. Aubrey, and flung his clay over the
+side. "What ship is this, Bannister?"
+
+"The _J.W. Seaver_, of 'Frisco. We're from the Gilbert Islands with a
+cargo of copra."
+
+"Who is your supercargo?"
+
+"Haven't got one. Can't get one here, either. Say, Tom, you're the man.
+The captain will jump at getting you! Since he married he considers his
+life too valuable to be trusted among natives, and funks at going ashore
+and doing supercargo's work. Now you come below, and I'll rake out
+enough money to get you a high-class suit of store clothes and shiny
+boots. Then you come back to dinner. I'll talk to him between then and
+now. He knows a lot about you. I'll tell him that since you left the
+_Palestine_ you've been touring your native country to 'expand your
+mind.' _She's_ Boston, as ugly as a brown stone jug, and highly
+intellectual. _He's_ all right, and as good a sailor-man as ever trod a
+deck, but _she's_ boss, runs the ship, and looks after the crew's
+morals. Thet's why we're short-handed. But she'll take to you like
+lightning--when she hears that you've been 'expanding your mind.' Buy a
+second-hand copy of Longfellow's, poems, and tell her that it has been
+your constant companion in all your wanderings among vicious cannibals,
+and she'll just decorate your cabin like a prima-donna's boudoir, darn
+your socks, and make you read some of her own poetry."
+
+That afternoon, Mr. Thomas Denison, clean-shirted and looking eminently
+respectable and prosperous, and feeling once more a man after the
+degrading duck episode in North Queensland, was strolling about George
+Street with Bannister, and at peace with the world and himself. For the
+skipper's wife had been impressed with his intellectuality and modest
+demeanour, and was already at work decorating his cabin--as Bannister
+had prophesied.
+
+
+
+
+_Jack Shark's Pilot_
+
+
+Early one morning as we in the _Palestine_, South Sea trading schooner,
+were sailing slowly between Fotuna and Alofa--two islands lying to the
+northward of Fiji--one of the native hands came aft and reported two
+large sharks alongside. The mate at once dived below for his shark hook,
+while I tried to find a suitable bit of beef in the harness cask. Just
+as the mate appeared carrying the heavy hook and chain, our skipper, who
+was lying on the skylight smoking his pipe, although half asleep,
+inquired if there were "any pilot fish with the brutes."
+
+"Yes, sir," said a sailor who was standing in the waist, looking over
+the side, "there's quite a lot of 'em. I've never seen so many at one
+time before. There's nigh on a dozen."
+
+The captain was on his feet in an instant. "Don't lower that hook of
+yours just yet, Porter," he said to the mate. "I'm going to get those
+pilot fish first. Tom, bring me up my small fishing line."
+
+"They won't take a hook, will they?" I inquired.
+
+"Just you wait and see, sonny. Ever taste pilot fish?"
+
+"No. Are they good to eat?"
+
+"Best fish in the ocean, barring flying-fish," replied the skipper, as,
+after examining his line, he cut off both hook and leaden sinker and
+bent on a small-sized _pa_--a native-made bonito hook cut out from a
+solid piece of pearl-shell.
+
+Then jumping up into the whaleboat which hung in davits on the starboard
+quarter he waited for the sharks to appear, and the mate and I leant
+over the side and watched. We had not long to wait, for in a few minutes
+one came swimming quickly up from astern, and was almost immediately
+joined by the other, which had been hanging about amidships. They were
+both, however, pretty deep down, and at first I could not discern any
+pilot fish. The captain, however, made a cast and the hook dropped in
+the water, about fifty feet in the rear of the sharks; he let it sink
+for less than half a minute, and then began hauling in the line as
+quickly as possible, and at the same moment I saw some of the pilot fish
+quite distinctly--some swimming alongside and some just ahead of their
+detestable companions, which were now right under the counter. Then
+something gleamed brightly, and the shining hook appeared, for a second
+or two only, for two of the "pilots" darted after it with lightning-like
+rapidity, and presently one came to the surface with a splash,
+beautifully hooked, and was swung up into the boat.
+
+"Now for some fun," cried the captain, as tossing the fish to us on deck
+he again lowered the hook. This time it had barely touched the surface
+of the water when away went the line with a rush right under our keel.
+
+"This is a big fellow," said the skipper, and up came another dark blue
+and silver beauty about a foot in length, dropping off the hook just in
+time as he was hoisted clear of the gunwale. Then, in less than ten
+minutes--so eager were they to rush the hook the moment it struck the
+water--five more were jumping about upon the deck or in the boat. Then
+came a calamity, the eighth fish dropped off when half way up and took
+the hook with him, having swallowed it and bitten through the line.
+
+The captain jumped on deck again and began rooting out his bag for
+another small-sized _pa_, but to his disgust could not find one ready
+for use--none of them having the actual "hook" portion lashed to the
+shank, and the operation of lashing one of these cleverly-made native
+hooks takes some little time and patience, for the holes which are bored
+through the base of the "hook" part in order to lash it to the shank are
+very small, and only very fine and strong cord, such as banana-fibre,
+can be used. However, while the irate captain was fussing over his task,
+the mate and I were watching the movements of the sharks and their
+little friends with the greatest interest, having promised the captain
+not to lower the shark hook till he had caught the rest of the pilot
+fish, for he assured us that they would most likely disappear after the
+sharks were captured. (I learned from my own experience afterward that
+he was mistaken, for when a shark is caught at sea his attendants will
+frequently remain with the ship for weeks, or until another shark
+appears, in which case they at once attach themselves to him.)
+
+Both sharks were now swimming almost on the surface, so close to the
+ship that they could have been caught in a running bowline or harpooned
+with the greatest ease; and in fact our native crew, who were very
+partial to shark's flesh, had both harpoon and bowline in readiness in
+case the cunning brutes would not take a bait. They were both of great
+size--the largest being over twelve or thirteen feet in length. With the
+smaller one were three pilot fish, one swimming directly under the end
+of its nose, the others just over its eyes; the larger had but one
+attendant, which kept continually changing its position, sometimes being
+on one side, then on another, then disappearing for a few moments
+underneath the monster's belly, or pressing itself so closely against
+the creature's side that it appeared as if it was adhering to it. I had
+never before seen these fish at such close quarters, and their
+extraordinary activity and seeming attachment to their savage companions
+was most astonishing to witness; occasionally when either of the sharks
+would cease moving, they would take up a position within a few inches of
+its jaws, remain there a few seconds, and then swim under its belly and
+reappear at the tail, then slowly make their way along its back or sides
+to the hideous head again. Sometimes, either singly or all together,
+they would dart away on either side, but quickly returned, never being
+absent more than a minute. These brief excursions showed them to be
+extremely swift, yet when they returned to their huge companions they
+instantly became--at least to all appearance--intensely sluggish and
+languid in their movements, and swam in an undecided, indefinite sort of
+manner as if thoroughly exhausted. But this was but in appearance, for
+suddenly they would again shoot away along the surface of the water with
+lightning-like rapidity, disappear from view of the keenest eye, and,
+ere you could count five, again be beside the vessel swimming as
+leisurely, if not as lazily, as if they were incapable of quickening
+their speed.
+
+Having his line ready again, the captain now began fishing from the
+stern, and succeeded in catching three of the remaining four, the last
+one (which our natives said was the fish which had swallowed the first
+hook) refusing even to look at the tempting bit of iridescent
+pearl-shell. Then the impatient mate lowered his bait over the stern,
+having first passed the line outboard and given the end to three or four
+of the crew, who stood in the waist ready to haul in. The smaller of the
+two sharks was at once hooked, and when dragged up alongside amidships
+struggled and lashed about so furiously that the big fellow came
+lumbering up to see what was the matter, and Billy Rotumah, our native
+boatswain, who was watching for him, promptly drove a harpoon socket
+deeply into him between the shoulders; then, after some difficulty, a
+couple of running bowlines settled them both in a comfortable position
+to be stunned with an axe.
+
+The schooner was at this time within a few miles of a small village on
+Alofa, named Mua, and presently a boat manned by natives boarded us to
+sell yams, taro, pineapples, and bananas, all of which we bought from
+them in exchange for the sharks' livers and some huge pieces of flesh
+weighing two or three hundred pounds. These people (who resemble the
+Samoans in appearance and language) were much impressed and terrified
+when they saw the pilot fish which had been caught, and told our crew
+that ours would be an unlucky ship--that we had done a dangerous and
+foolish thing. Their feeling on the subject was strong; for when I asked
+them if they would take two or three of the fish on shore to Father
+Herv�, one of the French priests living on Fotuna, who was an old
+friend, they started back in mingled terror and indignation, and
+absolutely declined to even touch them. Taking one of the pilot fish up
+I held it by the head between my forefinger and thumb and asked the
+natives if they did not consider it good to look at.
+
+"True," replied a fine, stalwart young fellow, speaking in Samoan, "it
+is good to look at," and then he added gravely, "_Talofa lava ia te
+outou i le vaa nei, ua lata mai ne aso malaia ma le tiga|_" ("Alas for
+all you people on this ship, there is a day of disaster and sorrow near
+you").
+
+I tried to ascertain the cause of their terror, but could only elicit
+the statement that to kill a pilot fish meant direful misfortune. No
+sensible man, they asserted, would do such a senseless and _saua_
+(cruel) thing, and to eat one was an abomination unutterable.
+
+As soon as our visitors had left I hurried to make a closer examination
+of our prizes before the cook took possession of them. Of the eleven,
+only one was over a foot in length, the rest ranged from five to ten
+inches. The beautiful dark blue of the head and along the back, so
+noticeable when first caught, had now lost its brilliancy, and the four
+wide vertical black stripes on the sides had also become dulled,
+although the silvery belly was still as bright as a new dollar. The eyes
+were rather large for such a small fish, and all the fins were
+blue-black, with a narrow white line running along the edges. Their
+appearance even an hour after death was very handsome, and in shape they
+were much like a very plump trout. In the stomachs of some we found
+small flying squid, little shrimps, and other Crustacea.
+
+Our Manila-man cook, although not a genius, certainly knew how to fry
+fish, and that morning we had for breakfast some of Jack Shark's
+pilots--the most delicately-flavoured deep-sea fish I have ever
+tasted--except, perhaps, that wonderful and beautiful creature, the
+flying-fish.
+
+
+
+
+_The "Palu" of the Equatorial Pacific_
+
+
+During a residence of half a lifetime among the various island-groups of
+the North-western and South Pacific, I devoted much of my spare
+time--and I had plenty of it occasionally--to deep-sea fishing, my
+tutors being the natives of the Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice
+Groups.
+
+The inhabitants of the last-named cluster of islands are, as I have
+said, the most skilled fishermen of all the Malayo-Polynesian peoples
+with whom it has been my fortune to have come in contact. The very
+poverty of their island homes--mere sandbanks covered with coconut and
+pandanus palms only--drives them to the sea for their food; for the
+Ellice Islanders, unlike their more fortunate prototypes who dwell in
+the forest-clad, mountainous, and fertile islands of Samoa, Tahiti,
+Raratonga, &c., live almost exclusively upon coconuts, the drupes of the
+pandanus palm, and fish. From their very infancy they look to the sea as
+the main source of their food-supply, either in the clear waters of the
+lagoon, among the breaking surf on the reef, or out in the blue depths
+of the ocean beyond. From morn till night the frail canoes of these
+semi-nude, brown-skinned, and fearless toilers of the sea may be seen by
+the voyager paddling swiftly over the rolling swell of the wide Pacific
+in chase of the _bonito_, or lying motionless upon the water, miles and
+miles away from the land, ground-fishing with lines a hundred fathoms
+long. Then, as the sun dips, the flare of torches will be seen along the
+sandy beaches as the night-seekers of flying-fish launch their canoes
+and urge them through the rolling surf beyond the reef, where, for
+perhaps three or four hours, they will paddle slowly to and fro, just
+outside the white line of roaring breakers, and return to the shore with
+their tiny craft half-filled with the most beautiful and wonderful fish
+in the world. The Ellice Island method of catching flying-fish would
+take too long to explain here, much as I should like to do so; my
+purpose is to describe a very remarkable fish called the _palu_, in the
+capture of which these people are the most skilful. The catching of
+flying-fish, however, bears somewhat on the subject of this article, as
+the _palu_ will not take any other bait but a flying-fish, and therefore
+a supply of the former is a necessary preliminary to _palu_ fishing.
+
+Let us imagine, then, that the bait has been secured, and that a party
+of _palu_-fishers are ready to set out from the little island of
+Nanomaga, the smallest but most thickly populated of the Ellice Group.
+The night must be windless and moonless, the latter condition being
+absolutely indispensable, although, curiously enough, the fish will
+take the hook on an ordinary starlight night. Time after time have I
+tried my luck with either a growing or a waning moon, much to the
+amusement of the natives, and never once did I get a _palu_, although
+other nocturnal-feeding fish bit freely enough.
+
+The tackle used by the natives is made of coconut cinnet, four or
+eight-stranded, of great strength, and capable of holding a fifteen-foot
+shark should one of these prowlers seize the bait. The hook is made of
+wood--in fact, the same as is used for shark-fishing--about one inch and
+a half in diameter, fourteen inches in the shank, with a natural curve;
+the barb, or rather that which answers the purpose of a barb, being
+supplied by a small piece lashed horizontally across the top of the end
+of the curve. These peculiar wooden hooks are _grown_; the roots of a
+tree called _ngiia_, whose wood is of great toughness, are watched when
+they protrude from a bank, and trained into the desired shape; specimens
+of these hooks may be seen in almost any ethnographical museum. To sink
+the line, coral stones of three or four pounds weight are used, attached
+by a very thin piece of cinnet or bark, which, when the fish is struck,
+is always broken by its struggles, and falls off, thus releasing the
+line from an unnecessary weight. It is no light task hauling in a thick,
+heavy line, hanging straight up and down for a length of from
+seventy-five to a hundred fathoms or more!
+
+Each canoe is manned by four men, only two of whom usually fish, the
+other two, one at the bow and the other at the stern, being employed in
+keeping the little craft in a stationary position with their paddles.
+If, however, there is not much current all four lower their lines, one
+man working his paddle with one hand so as to keep from drifting. My
+usual companions were the resident native teacher and two stalwart young
+natives of the island--Tulu'ao and Muli'ao; and I may here indulge in a
+little vanity when I say that my success as a _palu_-fisher was regarded
+as something phenomenal, only one other white man in the group, a trader
+on the atoll of Funafuti, having ever caught a _palu_, or, in fact,
+tried to catch one. But then I had such beautiful tackle that even the
+most skilled native fisherman had no chance when competing with me. My
+lines were of twenty-seven-strand white American cotton, as thick as a
+small goose-quill, and easily handled, never tangling or twisting like
+the native cinnet; and my hooks were the admiration and envy of all who
+saw them. They were of the "flatted" Kirby type, eyed, but with a curve
+in the shank, which was five inches in length, and as thick as a
+lead-pencil. I had bought these in Sydney, and during the voyage down
+had rigged them with snoodings of the very best seizing wire, intending
+to use them for shark-fishing. I had smaller ones down to three inches,
+but always preferred using the largest size, as the _palu_ has a large
+mouth, and it is a difficult matter in a small canoe on a dark night to
+free a hook embedded in the gullet of a fish which is awkward to handle
+even when exhausted, and weighing as much as sixty or seventy pounds;
+while I also knew that any unusual noise or commotion would be almost
+sure to attract some of those most dangerous of all night-prowlers of
+the Pacific, the deep-water blue shark.
+
+Paddling out due westward from the lee side of the island, where the one
+village is situated, we would bring-to in about seventy or eighty
+fathoms. As I always used leaden sinkers, my companions invariably let
+me lower first to test the depth, as with a two or three-pound lead my
+comparatively thin line took but little time in running out and touching
+bottom. A whole flying-fish was used for one bait by the natives, it
+being tied on to the inner curve of the great wooden hook, whilst I cut
+one in half, fore-and-aft, and ran my hook through it lengthwise.
+
+The utmost silence was always observed; and even when lighting our pipes
+we were always careful not to let the reflection of the flame of the
+match fall upon the water, on account of the sharks, which would at once
+be attracted to the canoe, and hover about until they were rewarded for
+their vigilance by seizing the first _palu_ brought to the surface.
+Sometimes a hungry shark will seize the outrigger in his jaws, or get
+foul of it, and upset the canoe, and a capsize under such circumstances
+is a serious matter indeed. For this reason the canoes are never far
+apart from each other; if one should be attacked or disabled by a shark
+the others at once render assistance, and the shark is usually thrust
+through with a lance if he is too big to be captured and killed. All
+haste is then made to get away from the spot, leaving the disturber of
+the proceedings to be devoured by his companions, whom the scent of
+blood soon brings upon the scene.
+
+With ordinary luck we would get our first _palu_ within an hour of
+lowering our lines. At such a great depth as eighty or ninety fathoms a
+bite would scarcely be felt by one of my companions on his thick, heavy,
+and clumsy line; but on mine it was very different, and there was hardly
+an occasion on which I did not secure the first fish. Like most
+bottom-haunting fish in very deep water the _palu_ makes but a brief
+fight. If he can succeed in "getting his head," he will at once rush
+into the coral forest amid which he lives, and endeavour to save himself
+by jamming his body into a cleft or chasm of rock, and let the hook be
+torn from his jaws, which are soft, boneless, and glutinous. Once,
+however, he is dragged clear of the coral he seems to lose all heart;
+and, although he makes an occasional spurt, he grows weaker and weaker
+as he is dragged toward the surface, and when lifted into the canoe is
+apparently lifeless, his large eyes literally standing out of his head,
+and his stomach distended like a balloon. So enormous is the distention
+of the bladder that sometimes it will protrude from the mouth, and then
+burst with a noise like a pistol-shot! Perhaps some of my readers will
+smile at this, but they could see the same thing occur with other
+deep-sea fish besides the _palu_. In the Caroline and Marshall Islands
+there is a species of grey groper which is caught in a depth ranging
+from one hundred to one hundred and fifty fathoms; these fish, which
+range up to two hundred pounds, actually burst their stomachs when
+brought to the surface; for the air in the cavities of the body expands
+on the removal of the great pressure which at such depths keeps it
+compressed.
+
+Now as to the appearance of the _palu_. When first caught, and seen by
+the light of a lantern or torch, it is a dark, silvery grey in colour,
+with prickly, inverted scales--like the feathers of a French fowl of a
+certain breed. The head is somewhat cod-shaped, with eyes quite as large
+as a crown-piece; the teeth are many, small, and soft, and bend to a
+firm pressure; and the bones in the fin and tail are so soft and
+flexible that they may be bent into any shape, but when dried are of the
+appearance and consistency of gelatine. The length of the largest _palu_
+I have seen was five feet six inches, with a girth of about forty
+inches. This one was caught in about ninety fathoms of water; and when I
+opened the stomach I found it to contain five or six undigested fish,
+about seven inches in length, of the groper species, and for which the
+natives of the island had no name or knowledge of beyond the appellation
+_ika kehe_--"unknown fish"--that is, fish which are only seen when taken
+from the stomach of a deep-sea fish, or are brought to the surface or
+washed ashore after some submarine disturbance.
+
+The flesh of the _palu_ is greatly valued by the natives of the
+equatorial islands of the Pacific for its medicinal qualities as a
+laxative, whilst the oil with which it is permeated is much used as a
+remedy for rheumatism and similar complaints. Within half an hour of its
+being taken from the water the skin changes to a dead black, and the
+flesh assumes the appearance of whale blubber. Generally, the fish is
+cooked in the usual native ground-oven as quickly as possible, care
+being taken to wrap it closely up in the broad leaves of the _puraka_
+plant--a species of gigantic taro--in order that none of the oil may be
+lost. Thinking that the oil, which is perfectly colourless and with
+scarcely any odour, might prove of value, I once "tried out" two of the
+largest fish taken, and obtained a gallon. This I sent to a firm of
+drug-merchants in Sydney; but unfortunately the vessel was lost on the
+passage.
+
+The _palu_ does not seem to have a wide habitat. In the Tonga Islands it
+is, I believe, very rare; and in Fiji, Samoa, and other mountainous
+groups throughout Polynesia the natives appear to have no knowledge of
+it, although they have a fish possessing the same peculiar
+characteristics, but of a somewhat different shape. I have fished for it
+without success at half a dozen places in Samoa, in New Britain, and New
+Ireland. But it is generally to be found about the coasts of any of the
+low-lying coral islands of the Union (or Tokelau) Group, the Ellice,
+Gilbert, Marshall, and part of the Caroline archipelagoes. The Gilbert
+Islanders call it _te ika ne peka_--a name that cannot well be
+translated into bald English, though there is a very lucid Latin
+equivalent.
+
+In 1882 I took passage from the Island of Nukufetau in the Ellice Group
+for the Caroline Islands. The vessel was a fine brigantine of 160 tons,
+and was named the _Orwell_. She was, unfortunately, commanded by an
+incompetent, obstinate, self-willed man, who, though a good seaman, had
+no meteorological knowledge and succeeded in losing the ship, when lying
+at anchor, on Peru Island, in the Gilbert Group, ten days after leaving
+Nukufetau, simply through disregarding the local trader's advice to put
+to sea. Disastrous as was the incident to me, for I lost trade goods and
+personal effects to the value of over a thousand pounds, and came ashore
+with what I stood in--to wit, a pyjama suit--and a bag of Chili dollars,
+I had reason to afterwards congratulate myself from a fisherman's point
+of view.
+
+Living on the island was a Swiss, Frank Voliero, whom I have before
+mentioned. He was an ardent deep-sea fisherman, and was on that account
+highly respected by the natives, who otherwise did not care for him, as
+he was of an exceedingly quarrelsome disposition. He was an expert
+_palu_ man, and he and I therefore quickly made Island _bruderschaft_.
+During the three months I remained on Peru we had many fishing trips,
+and caught not less than fifty _palu_. The largest of these was
+evidently a patriarch, for although he was in rather poor condition he
+weighed 136 lbs. and was 6 feet 10 inches in length. Another, hooked at
+a depth of eighty-five fathoms, was only 5 feet 2 inches, and weighed
+129 lbs. Its stomach contained a small octopus with curiously stunted
+tentacles, almost as thick at the tips as they were at the base, but in
+all other respects similar to those found in shallow water upon the
+reefs and in the lagoon.
+
+Both Voliero and myself tried many kinds of bait for _palu,_ believing
+that the native theory that the fish would only take flying-fish was
+wrong. We found that on Peru, any elongated fish, such as gars, silvery
+mullet, or young bonito, were acceptable, and that the tentacle of an
+octopus, after the outer skin was removed, answered just as well. Yet
+further southward among the Pacific Isles, flying-fish is the only bait
+they will take! Evidently, therefore, the _palu_, at the great depths in
+which it lives, is attracted by a brightly-hued fish whose habitat is on
+the surface of the ocean. Why this is so must be decided by
+ichthyologists, for there are no bright, silvery-scaled fish inhabiting
+the ocean at such depths as eighty or a hundred fathoms. And why is it
+that the _palu,_ quiescent by day, and feeding only at night, so eagerly
+seizes a hook baited with a flying-fish--a fish which never descends
+more than a few fathoms below the surface, and which the _palu_ can
+never possibly see except when it is lowered by human hands to, or sinks
+to the bottom?
+
+Of the marvellous efficacy of the _palu_-oil in a case of acute
+rheumatism I can speak with knowledge. The second mate of an
+island-trading schooner of which I was the supercargo, was landed at
+Arorai, in the Line Islands, unable to move, and suffering great agony.
+After two days' massaging with _palu_-oil he recovered and returned to
+his duties.
+
+[Since this was written I have learned that Mr. E.R. Waite, of the
+Sydney Museum, has described the _palu_ as the _Ruvettus pretiosus_,
+"which hitherto was known only from the North Atlantic, and whose
+recorded range is now enormously increased. The Escolar--to give it its
+Atlantic name--has been taken at depths as great as three and four
+hundred fathoms, but can only be taken at night in September and the
+early part of October." I should very much like to learn how the _palu_
+is taken at a depth of four hundred fathoms--eight hundred yards!]
+
+
+
+
+_The Wily "Goanner"_
+
+
+In the early part of the year 1899 a settler named Hardy, residing at
+Glenowlan, in the Rylstone district of New South Wales, about 150 miles
+from Sydney, lost numbers of his lambs during the lambing season.
+Naturally enough, dingoes were suspected, but none were seen. Then other
+sheep--men began to lose lambs, and a close watch was set, with the
+result that iguanas, which are very numerous in this part of the
+country, were discovered to be the murderers of the little "baa-baa's."
+The cause of this new departure in the predatory habits of the
+"goanner"--which hitherto had confined his evil deeds to nocturnal
+visits to the fowl-yards--is stated to be the extermination of the
+opossum, which has driven the cunning reptile to seek for another source
+of food. And, as before the shooting of kangaroos, wallabies, and
+opossums was resorted to as a means of livelihood by hundreds of bushmen
+who had no other employment open to them, the young of these marsupials
+furnished the iguana with an ample supply of food, the theory is very
+probably correct. Poison will be the only method of destroying or
+reducing the numbers of the iguana, who, robber as he is, yet has his
+good points, as has even the sneaking, blood-loving native cat--for both
+are merciless foes to snakes of all kinds; and 'tis better to have an
+energetic and hungry native cat and a score of wily iguanas working
+havoc among the tenants of your fowl-house than one brown or an equally
+deadly "bandy-bandy" snake within half a mile.
+
+In that part of New South Wales in which the writer was born--one of the
+tidal rivers on the northern coast--both snakes and iguanas were
+plentiful, and a source of continual worry to the settlers.
+
+On one occasion some boyish companions and myself set to work to build a
+raft for fishing purposes out of some old and discarded blue gum rails
+which were lying along the bank of the river. Boy-like, we utterly
+disregarded our parents' admonition to put on our boots, and, aided by a
+couple of blackfellows, we moved about the long grass on our bare feet,
+picking up the heavy rails and carrying them on our shoulders, one by
+one, down to the sandy beach, where we were to lash them together.
+Presently we came across a very heavy rail, about eight feet long,
+twelve inches in width, and two inches thick. It was no sooner up-ended
+than we saw half a dozen "bandy-bandies"--the smallest but most deadly
+of Australian snakes, not even excepting the death-adder--lying beneath!
+We gave a united yell of terror and fled as the black and yellow banded
+reptiles--none of which were over eighteen inches in length nor thicker
+than a man's little finger--wriggled between our feet into the long
+grass around us. For some minutes we were too frightened at our escape
+to speak; but soon set to work to complete the raft. Presently one of
+the blackfellows pointed to a tall honeysuckle-tree about fifty feet
+away, and said with a gleeful chuckle, "Hallo, you see him that 'pfeller
+goanner been catch him bandy-bandy?"
+
+Sure enough, an iguana, about three feet in length, was scurrying up the
+rough, ridgy bark of the honeysuckle with a "bandy-bandy" in his jaws.
+He had seized the snake by its head, I imagine, for we could see the
+rest of its form twisting and turning about and enveloping the body of
+its capturer. In a few seconds we saw the iguana ascend still higher,
+then he disappeared with his hateful prey among the loftier branches. No
+doubt he enjoyed his meal.
+
+About a year or so later I was given another instance of the "cuteness"
+of the wicked "goanner." My sister (aged twelve) and myself (two years
+younger) were fishing with bamboo rods for mullet. We were standing, one
+on each side, of the rocky edges of a tiny little bay on the coast near
+Port Macquarie (New South Wales). The background was a short, steep
+beach of soft, snow-white sand, fringed at the high-water margin with a
+dense jungle of wild apple and pandanus-trees.
+
+The mullet bit freely, and as we swung the gleaming, bright-silvered
+fish out of the water on to the rocks on which we stood, we threw them
+up on to the beach, and left them to kick about and coat themselves with
+the clean, white sand--which they did in such an artistic manner that
+one would imagine they considered it egg and breadcrumb, and were
+preparing themselves to fulfil their ultimate and proper use to the
+_genus homo_.
+
+My sister had caught seven and I five, when, the sun being amidships, we
+decided to boil the billy of tea and get something to eat; young mullet,
+roasted on a glowing fire of honeysuckle cobs were, we knew, very nice.
+So, laying down our rods on the rocks, we walked up to the beach--just
+in time to see two "goanners"--one of them with a wriggling mullet in
+his mouth--scamper off into the bush.
+
+A careful search revealed the harrowing fact that nine of the twelve
+fish were missing, and the multitudinous criss-cross tracks on the sand
+showed the cause of their disappearance. My sister sat down on a hollow
+log and wept, out of sheer vexation of spirit, while I lit a fire to
+boil the billy and grill the three remaining mullet. Then after we had
+eaten the fish and drank some tea, we concocted a plan of deadly
+revenge. We took four large bream-hooks, bent them on to a piece of
+fishing-line, baited each hook with a good-sized piece of octopus (our
+mullet bait), and suspended the line between two saplings, about three
+inches above the leaf-strewn ground. Then, feeling confident of the
+success of our murderous device, we finished the billy of tea and went
+back to our fishing. We caught a couple of dozen or more of fine mullet,
+each one weighing not less than 1-1/2 lbs.; and then the incoming tide
+with its sweeping seas drove us from the ledge of rocks to the beach,
+where we changed our bamboo rods for hand-lines with sinkers, and flung
+them, baited with chunks of mullet, out into the breaking surf for
+sea-bream. By four in the afternoon we had caught more fish than we
+could well carry home, five miles away; and after stringing the mullet
+and bream through the gills with a strip of supple-jack cane, we went up
+the beach to our camp for the billy can and basket.
+
+And then we saw a sight that struck terror into our guilty souls--a
+_Danse Macabre_ of three writhing black and yellow, long-tailed
+"goanners," twisting, turning and lashing their sinuous and scaly tails
+in agony as they sought to free their widely-opened jaws from the cruel
+hooks. One had two hooks in his mouth. He was the quietest of the lot,
+as he had less purchase than the other two upon the ground, and with one
+hook in his lower and one in his upper jaw, glared upwards at us in his
+torture and smote his sides with his long, thin tail.
+
+"Oh, you wicked, wicked boy!" said my partner in guilt--at once shifting
+the responsibility of the whole affair upon me--"you ought to be ashamed
+of yourself for doing such a thing! You know well enough that we should
+never hurt a poor, harmless iguana. Oh, _do_ take those horrible hooks
+out of the poor things' mouths and let them go, you wicked, cruel boy!"
+
+With my heart in my mouth I crept round through the scrub, knife in
+hand.
+
+"Go on, you horrible, horrible, coward!" screamed my sister; "one would
+think that the poor things were alligators or sharks. Oh, my goodness,
+if you're so frightened, I'll come and do it myself." With that she
+clambered up into the branches of a pandanus-tree and looked at me
+excitedly, mingled with considerable contempt and much fear.
+
+Being quite wise enough not to attempt to take the hooks out of the
+"goanners'" mouths, I cut the two ends of the line to which they hung.
+They instantly sought refuge on the tree trunks around them; but as each
+"goanner" selected his individual tree, and as they were still connected
+to each other by the line and the hooks in their jaws, their attempts to
+reach a higher plane was a failure. So they fell to upon one another
+savagely.
+
+"Come away, you wicked, thoughtless boy," said my sister, weepingly. "I
+shall never come out with you again; you cruel thing."
+
+Then, overcoming my fear, I valiantly advanced, and gingerly extending
+my arm, cut the tangled-up fishing line in a dozen places; and with my
+bamboo fishing-rod disintegrated the combatants. They stood for a few
+seconds, panting and open-mouthed, and then, with the hooks still fast
+in their jaws, scurried away into the scrub.
+
+
+
+
+_The Ta~nifa of Samoa_
+
+
+Many years ago, at the close of an intensely hot day, I set out from
+Apia, the principal port of Samoa, to walk to a village named Laulii, a
+few miles along the coast. Passing through the semi-Europeanised town of
+Matautu, I emerged out upon the open beach. I was bound on a
+pigeon-shooting trip to the mountains, but intended sleeping that night
+at Laulii with some native friends who were to accompany me. With me was
+a young Manhiki half-caste named Allan Strickland; he was about
+twenty-two years of age and one of the most perfect specimens of
+athletic manhood in the South Pacific.[15] For six months we had been
+business partners and comrades in a small cutter in which we traded
+between Apia and Sava'ii--the largest island of the Samoan group; and
+now after some months of toil we were taking a week's holiday together,
+and enjoying ourselves greatly, although at the time (1873) the country
+was in the throes of an internecine war.
+
+A walk of a mile brought us to the mouth of the Vaivasa River, a small
+stream flowing into the sea from the littoral on our right. The tide was
+high and we therefore hailed a picket who were stationed in the trenches
+on the opposite bank and asked them in a jocular manner not to fire at
+us while we were wading across. To our surprise, for we were both well
+known to and on very friendly terms with the contending parties, half a
+dozen of them sprang up and excitedly bade us not to attempt to cross.
+
+"Go further up the bank and cross to our _olo_ (lines) in a canoe,"
+added a young Manono chief whose family I knew well, "there is a
+_ta~nifa_ about. We saw it last night."
+
+That was quite enough for us--for the name _Ta~nifa_ sent a cold chill
+down our backs. We turned to the right, and after walking a quarter of a
+mile came to a hut on the bank at a spot regarded as neutral ground.
+Here we found some women and children and a canoe, and in less than five
+minutes we were landed on the other side, the women chorusing the
+dreadful fate that would have befallen us had we attempted to cross at
+the mouth of the river.
+
+"_E lima gafa le umi!_" ("'Tis five fathoms long!") cried one old dame.
+
+"And a fathom wide at the shoulders," said another bare-bosomed lady,
+with a shudder. "It hath come to the mouth of the Vaivasa because it
+hath smelt the blood of the three men who were killed in the river here
+two days ago."
+
+"We'll hear the true yarn presently," said my companion as we walked
+down the left-hand bank of the river. "There must be a _ta~nifa_
+cruising about, or else those Manono fellows wouldn't have been so
+scared at us wanting to cross."
+
+As soon as we reached the young chief's quarters, we were made very
+welcome, and were obliged to accept his invitation to remain and share
+supper with himself and his men--all stalwart young natives from the
+little island of Manono--a lovely spot situated in the straits
+separating Upolo from Savaii. Placing our guns and bags in the care of
+one of the warriors, we took our seats on the matted floor, filled our
+pipes anew, and, whilst a bowl of kava was being prepared, Li'o, the
+young chief told us about the advent of the _ta~nifa_.
+
+Let me first of all, however, explain that the _ta~nifa_ is a somewhat
+rare and greatly-dreaded member of the old-established shark family. By
+many white residents in Samoa it was believed to occasionally reach a
+length of from twenty to twenty-five feet; as a matter of fact it seldom
+exceeds ten feet, but its great girth, and its solitary, nocturnal habit
+of haunting the mouths of shallow streams has invested it even to the
+native mind with fictional powers of voracity and destruction. Yet,
+despite the exaggerated accounts of the creature, it is really a
+dreadful monster, rendered the more dangerous to human life by the
+persistency with which it frequents muddied and shallow water,
+particularly after a freshet caused by heavy rain, when its presence
+cannot be discerned.
+
+Into the port of Apia there fall two small streams--called "rivers" by
+the local people--the Mulivai and the Vaisigago, and I was fortunate to
+see specimens of the _ta~nifa_ on three occasions, twice at the
+Vaisigago, and once at the mouth of the Mulivai, but I had never seen
+one caught, or even sufficiently exposed to give me an idea of its
+proportions. Many natives, however--particularly an old Rarotongan named
+Hapai, who lived in Apia, and was the proud capturer of several
+_ta~nifa_--gave me a reliable description, which I afterwards
+verified.
+
+A _ta~nifa_ ten feet long, they assured me, was an enormously bulky and
+powerful creature with jaws and teeth much larger than an ocean-haunting
+shark of double that length; the width across the shoulders was very
+great, and although it generally swam slowly, it would, when it had once
+sighted its prey, dart along under the water with great rapidity without
+causing a ripple. At a village in Savaii, a powerfully built woman who
+was incautiously bathing at the mouth of a stream was seized by one of
+these sharks almost before she could utter a cry, so swiftly and
+suddenly was she attacked. Several attempts were made to capture the
+brute, which continued to haunt the scene of the tragedy for several
+days, but it was too cunning to take a hook and was never caught.
+
+This particular _ta~nifa_, which had been seen by the young Manono
+chief and his men on the preceding evening had made its appearance soon
+after darkness had fallen and had cruised to and fro across the mouth of
+the Vaivasa till the tide began to fall, when it made its way seaward
+through a passage in the reef. It was, so Li'o assured me, quite eight
+feet in length and very wide across the head and shoulders. The water
+was clear and by the bright starlight they had discerned its movements
+very easily; once it came well into the river and remained stationary
+for some minutes, lying under about two feet of water. Some of the
+Manono men, hailing a picket of the enemy on the opposite bank of the
+river, asked for a ten minutes' truce to try and shoot it; this was
+granted, and standing on top of the sandy trench, half a dozen young
+fellows fired a volley at the shark from their Sniders. None of the
+bullets took effect and the _ta~nifa_ sailed slowly off again to
+cruise to and fro for another hour, watching for any hapless person who
+might cross the river.
+
+Just as the kava was being handed round, some children who were on watch
+cried out that the _ta~nifa_ had come. Springing to his feet, Li'o
+again hailed the enemy's picket on the other side, and a truce was
+agreed to, so that "the white men could have a look at the
+_ma|lie_"--shark.
+
+Thirty or forty yards away was what seemed to be a huge, irregular and
+waving mass of phosphorus which, as it drew nearer, revealed the
+outlines of the dreaded fish. It came in straight for the mouth of the
+creek, passed over the pebbly bar, and then swam leisurely about in the
+brackish water, moving from bank to bank at less than a dozen feet from
+the shore. The stream of bright phosphorescent light which had
+surrounded its body when it first appeared had now, owing to there being
+but a minor degree of phosphorus in the brackish water, given place to
+a dulled, sickly, greenish reflection, accentuated however by thin,
+vivid streaks, caused by the exudation from the gills of a streaming,
+viscid matter, common to some species of sharks, and giving it a truly
+terrifying and horrible appearance. Presently a couple of natives,
+taking careful aim, fired at the creature's head; in an instant it
+darted off with extraordinary velocity, rushing through the water like a
+submerged comet--if I may use the illustration. Both of the men who had
+fired were confident their bullets had struck and badly wounded the
+shark, but were greatly disgusted when, ten minutes later, it again
+appeared, swimming leisurely about, at ten fathoms from the beach.
+
+Three days later, as we were returning to Apia, we were told by our
+native friends that the shark still haunted the mouth of the Vaivasa;
+and I determined to capture it. I sent Allan on board the cutter for our
+one shark hook--a hook which had done much execution among the sea
+prowlers. Although not of the largest size, being only ten inches in the
+shank, it was made of splendid steel, and we had frequently caught
+fifteen-feet sharks with it at sea. It was a cherished possession with
+us and we always kept it--and the four feet of chain to which it was
+attached--bright and clean.
+
+In the evening Allan returned, accompanied by the local pilot (a Captain
+Hamilton) and the fat, puffing, master of a German barque. They wanted
+"to see the fun." We soon had everything in readiness; the hook, baited
+with the belly-portion of a freshly-killed pig (which the Manono people
+had commandeered from a bush village) was buoyed to piece of light _pua_
+wood to keep it from sinking, and then with twenty fathoms of brand-new
+whale line attached, we let it drift out into the centre of the passage.
+Then making our end of the line fast to the trunk of a coconut tree, we
+set some children to watch, and went into the trenches to drink some
+kava, smoke, and gossip.
+
+We had not long to wait--barely half an hour--when we heard a warning
+yell from the watchers. The _ta~nifa_ was in sight.
+
+Jumping up and tumbling over each other in our eagerness we rushed out;
+but alas! too late for the shark; for instead of approaching in its
+usual leisurely manner, it made a straight dart at the bait, and before
+we could free our end of the line it was as taut as an iron bar, and the
+creature, with the hook firmly fastened in his jaw, was ploughing the
+water into foam, amid yells of excitement from the natives. Then
+suddenly the line fell slack, and the half-a-dozen men who were holding
+it went over on their backs, heels up.
+
+In mournful silence we hauled it in, and then, oh woe! the hook, our
+prized, our beautiful hook, was gone! and with it two feet of the chain,
+which had parted at the centre swivel. That particular _ta~nifa_ was
+seen no more.
+
+Nearly two months later, two _ta~nifa_ of a much larger size, appeared
+at the mouth of the Vaivasa. Several of the white residents tried, night
+after night, to hook them, but the monsters refused to look at the
+baits. Then appeared on the scene an old one-eyed Malay named 'Reo, who
+asserted he could kill them easily. The way in which he set to work was
+described to me by the natives who witnessed the operations. Taking a
+piece of green bamboo, about four feet in length, he split from it two
+strips each an inch wide. The ends of these he then, after charring the
+points, sharpened carefully; then by great pressure he coiled them up
+into as small a compass as possible, keeping the whole in position by
+sewing the coil up in the fresh skin of a fish known as the _isuumu
+moana_--a species of the "leather-jacket." Then he asked to be provided
+with two dogs. A couple of curs were soon provided, killed, and the
+viscera removed. The coils of bamboo were then placed in the vacancy and
+the skin of the bellies stitched up with small wooden skewers. That
+completed the preparation of the baits.
+
+As soon as the two sharks made their appearance, one of the dead dogs
+was thrown into the water. It was quickly swallowed. Then the second
+followed, and was also seized by the other _ta~nifa_. The creatures
+cruised about for some hours, then went off, as the tide began to fall.
+
+On the following evening they did not turn up, nor on the next; but the
+Malay insisted that within four or five days both would be dead. As soon
+as the dogs were digested, he said, the thin fish-skin would follow, the
+bamboo coil would fly apart, and the sharpened ends penetrate not only
+the sharks' intestines, but protrude through the outer skin as well.
+
+Quite a week afterwards, during which time neither of the _ta~nifa_
+had been seen alive, the smaller of the two was found dead on the beach
+at Vailele Plantation, about four miles from the Vaivasa. It was
+examined by numbers of people, and presented an extremely interesting
+sight; one end of the bamboo spring was protruding over a foot from the
+belly, which was so cut and lacerated by the agonised efforts of the
+monster to free itself from the instrument of torture, that much of the
+intestines was gone.
+
+That the larger of these dreaded fish had died in the same manner there
+was no reason to doubt; but probably it had sunk in the deep water
+outside the barrier reef.
+
+
+
+
+_On Board the "_Tucopia_."
+
+
+The little island trading barque _Tucopia_, Henry Robertson, master, lay
+just below Garden Island in Sydney Harbour, ready to sail for the
+Friendly Islands and Samoa as soon as the captain came on board. At nine
+o'clock, as Bruce, the old, white-haired, Scotch mate, was pointing out
+to Mrs. Lacy and the Reverend Wilfrid Lacy the many ships around, and
+telling them from whence they came or where they were bound, the second
+mate called out--
+
+"Here's the captain's boat coming, sir."
+
+Bruce touched his cap to the pale-faced, violet-eyed clergyman's wife,
+and turning to the break of the poop, at once gave orders to "heave
+short," leaving the field clear to Mr. Charles Otway, the supercargo of
+the _Tucopia_, who was twenty-two years of age, had had seven years'
+experience of general wickedness in the South Seas, thought he was in
+love with Mrs. Lacy, and that, before the barque reached Samoa, he would
+make the lady feel that the Reverend Wilfrid was a serious mistake, and
+that he, Charles Otway, was the one man in the world whom she could love
+and be happy with for ever. So, being a hot-blooded and irresponsible
+young villain, though careful and decorous to all outward seeming, he
+set himself to work, took exceeding care over his yellow, curly hair,
+and moustache, and abstained from swearing in Mrs. Lacy's hearing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week before, Mr. and Mrs. Lacy had called at the owner's office and
+inquired about a passage to Samoa in the _Tucopia_, and Otway was sent
+for.
+
+"Otway," said the junior partner, "can you make room on the _Tucopia_
+for two more passengers--nice people, a clergyman and his wife."
+
+"D----all nice people, especially clergymen and their wives," he
+answered promptly--for although the youngest supercargo in the firm, he
+was considered, the smartest--and took every advantage of the fact. "I'm
+sick of carting these confounded missionaries about, Mr. Harry. Last
+trip we took two down to Tonga--beastly hymn-grinding pair, who wanted
+the hands to come aft every night to prayers, and played-up generally
+with the discipline of the ship. Robertson never interfered, and old
+Bruce, who is one of the psalm-singing kidney himself, encouraged the
+beasts to turn the ship into a floating Bethel."
+
+"Mr. Harry" laughed good-naturedly. "Otway, my boy, you mustn't put on
+so much side--the firm can't afford it. If you hadn't drunk so much
+whisky last night you would be in a better temper this morning."
+
+"Oh, if you've got some one else to take my billet on the _Tucopia_,
+why don't you say so, instead of backing and filling about, like a
+billy-goat in stays? _I_ don't care a damn if you load the schooner up
+to her maintop with sky-pilots and their dowdy women-kind. I've had
+enough of 'em, and I hereby tender you my resignation. I can get another
+and a better ship to-morrow, if--"
+
+"Sit down, you cock-a-hoopy young ass," and "Mr. Harry" hit the
+supercargo a good-humoured but stiff blow in the chest. "These people
+aren't missionaries; they're a cut above the usual breed. Man's a
+gentleman; woman's as sweet as a rosebud. Now look here, Otway; we give
+you a pretty free hand generally, but in this instance we want you to
+stretch a point--you can give these people berths in the trade-room,
+can't you?"
+
+The supercargo considered a moment. "There's a lot returning this trip.
+First, there's the French priest for Wallis Island--nice old buffer, but
+never washes, and grinds his teeth in his sleep--he's in the cabin next
+to mine; old Miss Wiedermann for Tonga--cabin on starboard side--fussy
+old cat, who is always telling me that she can distinctly hear
+Robertson's bad language on deck. But her brother is a good sort, and so
+I put up with her. Then there's Captain Burr, in the skipper's cabin,
+two Samoan half-caste girls in the deck-house--there's going to be
+trouble over those women, old Bruce says, and I don't doubt it--and the
+whole lot will have their meals in the beastly dog-kennel you call a
+saloon, and I call a sweat-box."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Otway. Your elegant manner of speaking shows clearly
+the refining influence of the charming people with whom you associate.
+Just let me tell you this--you looked like a gentleman a year or two
+ago, but become less like one every day."
+
+"No wonder," replied Otway sullenly, "the Island trade is not calculated
+to turn out Chesterfields. I'm sick enough of it, now we are carrying
+passengers as well as cargo. I suppose the firm will be asking us
+supercargoes to wear uniform and brass buttons soon, like the ticket
+collector on a penny ferry."
+
+"Quite likely, my sulky young friend--quite likely, if it will pay us to
+do so."
+
+"Then I'll clear out, and go nigger-catching again in the Solomons.
+That's a lot better than having to be civil to people who worry the soul
+out of you, are always in the way at sea, and a beastly nuisance in
+port. Why, do you know what old Miss Weidermann did at Manono, in Samoa,
+when we were there buying yams three months ago?"
+
+"No; what did she do?"
+
+"Got the skipper and myself into a howling mess through her infernal
+interference; and if the chiefs and old Mataafa himself had not come to
+our help there would have been some shooting, and this firm could never
+have sent another ship to Manono again. It makes me mad when I think of
+it--the silly old bundle of propriety and feminine spite."
+
+"Tell me all about it, Otway. 'Twill do you good, I can see, to unburden
+yourself of some of your bad temper. Shut that door, and we'll have a
+brandy-and-soda together."
+
+"Well," said Otway, "this is what occurred. I was ashore in the village,
+buying and weighing the yams, the skipper was lending me a hand, and
+everything was going on bully, when Mataafa and his chiefs sent an
+invitation to us to come up to his house and drink kava. Of course such
+an invitation from the native point of view was a great honour; and
+then, besides that, it was good business to keep in with old Mataafa,
+who had just given the Germans a thrashing at Vailele, and was as proud
+as a dog with two tails. So, although I hate kava, I accepted the
+invitation with 'many expressions of pleasure,' and felt sure that as
+the old fellow knew me of old, and I knew he wanted to buy some rifles,
+that I should get the bulk of a bag of sovereigns his mongrel, low-down
+American secretary was carrying around. So oft went the skipper and I,
+letting the yams stand over till we returned; the barque was lying about
+a mile off the beach. Mataafa was very polite to us, and during the kava
+drinking I found out that he had about three hundred sovereigns, and
+wanted to see the Martini-Henrys we had on board. Of course I told him
+that it would be a serious business for the ship if he gave us
+away--imprisonment in a dreadful dungeon in Fiji, if not hanging at the
+yard-arm or a man-of-war--and the old cock winked his eye and laughed.
+Then, as time was valuable, we at once concocted a plan to get the
+rifles--fifty--ashore without making too much of a show. Well, among
+some of the women present there were two great swells, one was the
+_taupo_, or town maid, of Palaulae in Savaii, and the other was a niece
+of Mataafa himself. These two, accompanied by a lot of young women of
+Manono, were to go off on board the barque in our boats, ostensibly to
+pay their respects to the white lady on board, and invite her on shore,
+so as to get her out of the way; then I was to pass the arms out of the
+stern ports into some canoes which would be waiting just as it became
+dark. About five o'clock they started off in one boat, leaving me and
+the skipper to follow in another. I had sent a note off to the mate
+telling him all about the little game, and to be mighty polite to the
+two chief women, who were to be introduced to Miss Weidermann, give the
+old devil some presents of mats, fruits, and such things, and ask her to
+come ashore as Mataafa's guest.
+
+"Well, something had gone wrong with the Weidermann's temper; for when
+the women came on board she was sulking in her cabin, and refused to
+show her vinegary face outside her state-room door. Thinking she would
+get over her tantrum in a few minutes, the mate invited the two Samoan
+ladies and their attendants down into the cabin, where they awaited her
+appearance, behaving themselves, of course, very decorously, it being a
+visit of ceremony.
+
+"Presently Old Cat-face opened her door, and then, without giving the
+native ladies time to utter a word, she launched out at them in her
+bastard-mongrel Samoan-Tongan. The first thing she said was that she
+knew the kind of women they were, and what had brought them on board!
+How dared such brazen, shameless cattle come into the cabin! Into the
+same cabin as a white lady! The bold, half-naked, disgraceful hussies,
+etc., etc. And then she capped the thing by calling to the steward to
+come and drive them out!
+
+"Not one of the native women could answer her. They were all simply
+dumbfounded at such a gross insult, and left the cabin in silence. The
+mate tried to smooth things over, but one of the women--Mataafa's
+niece--gave him a look that told him to say no more. In half an hour the
+whole lot of them were back on the beach, and came up to the chiefs
+house, where the skipper and myself were having a final drink of kava
+with old Mataafa and his _faipule_.[16] The face of the elder of the two
+women was blazing with anger, and then, pointing to the captain and
+myself, she gave us such a tongue-lashing for sending her off to the
+ship to be shamed and insulted, that made us blush. Old Mataafa waited
+until she had finished, and then, with an ugly gleam in his eye but
+speaking very quietly, asked us what it meant.
+
+"What _could_ we say but that it was no fault of ours; and then, by a
+happy inspiration, I added that although Miss Weidermann was generally
+well-conducted enough, she sometimes got blazing drunk, and made a beast
+of herself. This explanation satisfied the chiefs, if not the women, and
+everything went on smoothly. And as it was then nearly dark, and I was
+determined that Mataafa should get his rifles, half a dozen of his men
+took us off in their canoes, and we went on board. The skipper and I had
+fixed up as to what we should do with the Weidermann creature. She was
+seated at the cabin table waiting to open out on us, but the skipper
+didn't give her a chance.
+
+"'Go to your cabin at once, madam,' he said solemnly, 'and I trust you
+will not again leave it in your present condition. Your conduct is
+simply astounding. _Steward, see that you give Miss Weidermann no more
+grog_.'
+
+"The poor old girl thought that either he or she herself was going mad,
+but he gave her no time to talk. The captain opened her state-room door,
+gently pushed her in, and put a man outside to see that she didn't come
+out again. Then we handed out the rifles through the stern-ports to the
+natives in the canoes, and sent them away rejoicing. And that's the end
+of the yarn, and Miss Weidermann nearly went into a fit next morning
+when we told her that no less than thirty respectable native women had
+taken their oaths that she was mad drunk, and abused them vilely."
+
+The junior partner laughed loudly at the story, and Otway, with a more
+amiable look on his face, rose.
+
+"Well, I'll do what I can for these people. I'll make room for them
+somehow. Where are they going?"
+
+"Samoa. They have an idea of settling down there, I think, for a few
+months, and then going on to China. They have plenty of money,
+apparently."
+
+"Oh, well, tell them to come on board to-morrow, and I'll show them what
+can be done for them."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So the Rev. and Mrs. Lacy did come on board, and Mr. Charles Otway was
+vanquished by just one single glance from the lady's violet eyes.
+
+"It would have been such a dreadful disappointment to us if we could not
+have obtained passages in the _Tucopia_," she said, in her soft, sweet
+voice, as she sank back in the deck-chair he placed before her. "My
+husband is so bent on making a tour through Samoa. Now, do tell me, Mr.
+Otway, are these islands so very lovely?"
+
+"Very, very lovely, Mrs. Lacy," replied Otway, leaning with his back
+against the rail and regarding her with half-closed eyes; "as sweet and
+fair to look upon as a lovely woman--a woman with violet eyes and lips
+like a budding rose."
+
+She gave him one swift glance, seemingly in anger, yet her eyes smiled
+into his; then she bent her head and regarded the deck with intense
+interest. Otway thought he had scored. She was sure _she_ had.
+
+Otway had just shown her and her husband his own cabin, and had told
+them that they could occupy it--he would make himself comfortable in the
+trade-room, he said. This was after the first look from the violet eyes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Robertson, the skipper, came aboard, shook hands with Mrs. Lacy and her
+husband, nodded to the other passengers, dived below for a moment or
+two, and then reappeared on deck, full of energy, blasphemy, and anxiety
+to get under way. In less than an hour the smart barque was outside the
+Heads, and heeling over to a brisk south-westerly breeze. Two days later
+she was four hundred miles on her course.
+
+The Rev. Wilfrid Lacy soon made himself very agreeable to the rest of
+the passengers, who all agreed that he was a splendid type of parson,
+and even Otway, who had as much principle as a rat and began making love
+to his wife from the outset, liked him. First of all, he was not the
+usual style of travelling clergyman. He didn't say grace at meals, he
+smoked a pipe, drank whisky and brandy with Otway and Robertson, told
+rattling good stories, and displayed an immediate interest when the
+skipper mentioned that the second mate was a "bit of a bruiser," and
+that there were gloves on board; and the second mate, a nuggety little
+Tynesider, at once consented to a friendly mill as soon as he was off
+duty.
+
+"Wilfrid," said Mrs. Lacy, "you'll shock every one. I can see that
+Captain Robertson wonders what sort of a clergyman you are."
+
+Robertson saw the merry light in her dark eyes, and then laughed aloud
+as he saw Miss Weidermann's face. It expressed the very strongest
+disapproval, and during the rest of the meal the virgin lady preserved a
+dismal silence. The rest of the passengers, however, "took" to the
+clerical gentleman at once. With old Father Roget--the Marist
+missionary who sat opposite him--he soon entered into an animated
+conversation, while the two De Boos girls, vivacious Samoan half-castes,
+attached themselves to his wife. Seated beside Otway was another
+passenger, an American skipper named Burr, who was going to Apia to take
+command of a vessel belonging to the same firm as the _Tucopia_. He was
+a silent, good-looking man of about sixty, and possessed of much caustic
+humour and a remarkable fund of smoking-room stories, which, on rare
+occasions, he would relate in an inimitable, drawling manner, as if he
+was tired. The chief mate was a deeply but not obtrusively religious
+Scotsman; the second officer, Allen, was a young man of thirty, an
+excellent seaman, but rough to the verge of brutality with the crew.
+Bruce, on the other hand, was too easy-going and patient.
+
+"I never want to raise my hand against a man," he said one day, as a
+protest, when Allen gave one of the crew an unmerciful cuff which sent
+him down as if he had been shot.
+
+"Neither do I," replied Allen, "I prefer raising my foot. But it's
+habit, Mr. Bruce, only habit."
+
+For five days the barque ran steadily on an E.N.E. course, then on the
+sixth day the wind hauled, and by sunset it was blowing hard from the
+eastward with a fast-gathering sea. By two in the morning Robertson and
+his officers knew that they were in for a three-days' easterly gale; a
+few hours later it was decided to heave-to, as the sea had become
+dangerous, and the little vessel was straining badly. Just after this
+had been done, the gale set in with redoubled fury, and when Mrs. Lacy
+came on deck shortly before breakfast, she shuddered at the wild
+spectacle. Coming to the break of the poop, she clasped the iron rail
+with both hands, and gazed fearfully about her.
+
+"You had better go below, ma'am," said the second mate, who was standing
+near, talking to Otway, "there's some nasty, lumpy seas."
+
+Then he gave a yell.
+
+"Look out there!"
+
+Springing to Mrs. Lacy's side, he clasped his left arm around her waist,
+and held on tightly to the iron rail with his right, just as a vast
+mountain of water took the barque amidships, fell on her deck with
+terrific force, and fairly buried her from the topgallant foc'scle to
+the level of the poop. In less than half a minute the galley, for'ard
+deck-house, long-boat, which was lying on the main hatch, and the port
+bulwarks had vanished, together with three poor seamen who were asleep
+in the deck-house. The fearful crash brought the captain flying on deck.
+One glance showed him that there was no chance of saving the men--to
+attempt to lower a boat in such a sea was utterly impossible, and would
+be madness itself. He sighed, and then took off his cap. Allen and Otway
+followed his example.
+
+"Is there no hope for them?" Mrs. Lacy whispered to Otway.
+
+"None," replied the supercargo in a low voice. "None." Then he urged her
+to go below, as it was not safe for her to remain on deck. She went at
+once, and met her husband just as he was leaving their cabin.
+
+"What is the matter, Nell?" he asked, as he saw that tears were in her
+eyes.
+
+"Three poor men have been carried overboard, Wilfrid. They were in the
+deck-house asleep ten minutes ago--now they are gone! Oh, isn't it
+dreadful, dreadful!" And then she sat down beside him and wept silently.
+
+Breakfast was a forlorn meal--Robertson and his officers were not
+present, and Otway took the captain's seat. He, too, only remained to
+drink a cup of coffee, then hurriedly went on deck. Lacy rose at the
+same time, but at the foot of the companion, Otway motioned him to stop.
+
+"Don't come on deck awhile, if you please," he said, "and tell the
+ladies to keep to the cabin."
+
+"Anything fresh gone wrong?"
+
+"Yes," replied the supercargo, looking steadily at the clergyman--"the
+ship is making water badly. Don't you hear the pumps going? Tell the
+ladies not to come on deck--say it is not safe. And if the old
+Weidermann girl hears the pumps, and gets inquisitive, tell her that a
+lot of water got into the hold when that big sea tumbled aboard. She's
+an inquisitive old ass, and would be bound to tell the other ladies that
+the ship is in danger."
+
+Lacy nodded. "All right, I'll see to her. How long has the ship been
+leaking?"
+
+"For quite a long time. And there is fourteen inches in her, and it's as
+much as we can do to keep it under."
+
+"That is serious."
+
+Otway nodded. "Yes, it is serious in weather like this. Now I must go.
+Daresay we may give you a call in the course of the morning. Ever try a
+spell at old-fashioned brake pumps? Fine exercise."
+
+"I'm ready now if you want me," was the quiet answer.
+
+The _Tucopia_ was indeed in a pretty bad case. Immediately after the
+fatal sea had swept her decks the carpenter had sounded the well and
+found fifteen inches of water, some little of which had got below
+through the fore-scuttle, but the greater portion, it was soon evident,
+was the result of a leak. The barque was a comparatively new vessel, and
+Robertson and his officers, after two hours' pumping, came to the
+conclusion that she had either strained herself badly or a butt-end had
+started somewhere.
+
+For two hours the crew worked at the pumps, taking a spell of ten
+minutes every half-hour, Otway, the American captain Burr, and Mr. Lacy
+all lending a hand. Then the well was sounded, and showed two inches
+less.
+
+Robertson ordered the men to come aft and get a glass of grog. They
+trooped down into the cabin wet and exhausted, and the steward served
+them each out half a tumblerful of good French brandy. They drank it
+off, and then went on deck again to have a smoke before resuming
+pumping. A quarter of an hour later the pumps choked. There were a
+hundred tons of coal in the lower hold, and some of the small of it had
+been drawn up. By the time the carpenter had them cleared the water had
+gained seven inches, and the little barque was labouring heavily. Again,
+however, the willing crew turned to and pumped steadily for another
+hour, but only succeeded in reducing the water by an inch or two. Then
+Robertson called his officers together and consulted.
+
+"We can't keep on like this much longer," he said, "the water is gaining
+on us too fast. And we can't run before such a sea as this, in our
+condition; we should be pooped in less than five minutes. We shall have
+to take to the boats in another couple of hours, unless a change takes
+place. Mr. Allen, and you, Mr. Otway, see to the two boats, and get them
+in readiness."
+
+Then he went below to the passengers. They were all seated in the main
+cabin, and looked anxiously at him as he entered.
+
+"I am sorry to tell you, ladies," he said quietly, "that the ship is
+leaking so badly that I fear we shall have to abandon her. The men
+cannot keep on pumping much longer, now that we are three hands short.
+Fortunately we have two good boats, and, if we must take to them, shall
+have no trouble in reaching land."
+
+They heard him in silence, then the old priest opened his state-room
+door, and came out.
+
+"That is bad news indeed, captain," he said gently. "Still we must bow
+to God's will, and trust to His guidance and protection. And you and
+your officers and crew are good and brave seamen."
+
+"Thank you, father. We'll do all right if we have to take to the boats.
+And you must try and cheer up the ladies. Now I must leave you all for
+awhile. We will stick to the pumps for another hour or two."
+
+"Captain," said Sarah de Boos, a tall, finely built young woman of
+twenty, "let my sister and myself and our servant help the men at the
+pump. _Do_, please. We are all three very strong, and our help is surely
+worth having."
+
+Robertson patted her soft cheek with his big, sunburnt hand. "You are
+your father's daughter, Sarah, and I thank you. Of course your help
+would be something; three fine lusty young women"--he tried to
+smile--"but it's too dangerous for you to be on deck. All the bulwarks
+are gone, and nasty lumping seas come aboard every now and then."
+
+"I'm not afraid of a life-line hurting my waist," was the prompt answer,
+"and neither is Sukie--are you Sukie? Go on deck, captain, and Sukie and
+I and Mina" (the servant) "will just kick off our boots and follow you."
+
+"And I too," broke in old Father Roget. "Surely I am not too old to
+help."
+
+In less than five minutes the two half-caste girls, the native woman
+Mina, and the old priest, were working the starboard brake, three seamen
+being on the lee side. Every now and then, as the barque took a heavy
+roll to windward, the water would flood her deck up to the workers'
+knees; but they stuck steadily to their task for half an hour, when they
+gave place to Burr, the carpenter, the Rev. Wilfrid, and three native
+seamen.
+
+In the cabin Mrs. Lacy sat with ashen-hued face beside Miss Weidermann,
+their hands clasped together, and listening to the wild clamour of the
+wind and sea. Presently the two De Boos girls, Lacy, Father Roget, and
+Mina, came below to rest awhile, the water streaming from their sodden
+garments. The old priest, thoroughly exhausted, threw himself down upon
+the transom locker cushions.
+
+"Wilfrid," said Mrs. Lacy coming over to him and placing her shaking
+hand on his shoulder, "cannot I do something? Oh, Miss De Boos, I wish I
+were brave, like you. But I am not--I am a coward, and I hate myself for
+it."
+
+The Rev. Wilfrid smiled tenderly at her as he drew her to him for a
+moment. "Don't worry, little woman. You can't do anything--yes, you can,
+though! Get me my pipe and fill it for me. My hands are wet and
+cramped."
+
+Sukie De Boos, whose firm, rounded bosom and strong square shoulders
+made a startling contrast, as they revealed their shape under her
+soddened blouse, to Mrs. Lacy's fragile figure, impulsively put her
+hands out, and taking Mrs. Lacy's face between them, kissed her twice.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Lacy," she said, "don't be frightened, please. Now get Mr.
+Lacy's pipe, and I'll rummage the steward's pantry and get some food for
+us all to eat. Mr. Otway told me to tell you and Miss Weidermann to eat
+something, as maybe we may not get anything for some hours. So I'm just
+going to stay here and see that every one _does_ eat. I'll set you a
+good example."
+
+In a few minutes she laid upon the table an assortment of tinned meats,
+bread, and some bottled beer, and some brandy for Father Roget and Lacy.
+Otway came down, followed by the steward, and nodded approval.
+
+"That's right, Sukie. Eat as much as you can. I'll take a drink myself.
+Here's luck to you, Sukie. Perhaps we won't have to make up a boating
+party after all. But there's nothing like being ready. So will you, Mr.
+Lacy, lend a hand here with the steward, and pass up our provisions to
+the second mate? The captain will be down in a minute, and will tell you
+ladies what clothing to get ready. For my part I'll be jolly glad if we
+do have to take to the boats, where we shall be nice and comfy, instead
+of rolling about in this beastly way--I'll be sea-sick in another ten
+minutes. Old Bruce says he felt sick an hour ago. Come on, steward."
+
+The assumed cheerfulness of his manner produced a good effect, and even
+old Miss Weidermann plucked up heart a little as she saw him
+nonchalantly light a cigar as he disappeared with the steward below into
+the lazzarette.
+
+On deck Robertson and the mate were talking in low tones, as they
+assisted the second mate with the boats. There was now nearly three feet
+of water in the hold, and every one knew that the barque could not keep
+afloat much longer. Fortunately the violence of the wind had decreased
+somewhat, though there was still a mountainous sea.
+
+Both the old mate and the captain knew that the two small quarter boats
+would be dangerously overladen, and their unspoken fears were shared by
+the rest of the officers and crew. But another hour would perhaps make a
+great difference; and then as the two men were speaking a savage sea
+smote the _Tucopia_ on the starboard bow, with such violence that she
+trembled in every timber, and as she staggered under the shock and then
+rolled heavily to windward, she dipped the starboard quarter boat under
+the water; it filled, and as she rose again, boat and davits went away
+together.
+
+Robertson groaned and looked at the mate.
+
+"It is God's will, sir," said the old Scotsman quietly.
+
+Robertson nodded. "Tell Allen and the others to come here," he said.
+
+The Tynesider, followed by Captain Burr, Otway, and the carpenter, came.
+
+"Mr. Allen," said the captain, "you are the best man in such an
+emergency as this. You handle a boat better than any man I know. There
+is now only one boat left, and you must take charge of her. You will
+have to take a big lot of people--the four women, the parson, the old
+French priest, Mr. Otway, Captain Burr, the carpenter, and the five
+men."
+
+"I guess I'll stand out, and stick to the ship," said Burr in a lazy,
+drawling manner, "I don't like bein' crowded up with a lot of wimmen."
+
+"Neither do I, said Otway.
+
+"Same here, captain," said the carpenter, a little grizzled man of
+sixty.
+
+Robertson shook hands with each of them in turn. "I knew you were
+_men_," he said simply. "Come below and let's have a drink together, and
+then see to the boat."
+
+"What's all this, skipper?" said Allen, with an oath, "d'ye think I'm
+going to save my carcase and let you men drown? I'll see you all damned
+first!"
+
+"You'll obey orders," growled the captain, "and my orders are that you
+take charge of that boat. And don't give me any lip. You are a married
+man and have children. None of us who are standing by the ship are
+married men. By God, my joker, if you don't know your duty, I'll teach
+you. Are you going to let these four women go adrift in a boat to perish
+when you can save them?"
+
+Allen looked the captain squarely in the face and then put out his hand.
+
+"I understand you, sir. But I don't like doing it. The ship won't keep
+afloat another hour. But, as you say, I've a wife and kids to consider."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Followed by the others, Robertson went below, and told his passengers to
+get ready for the boat. The old French priest, exhausted by his labour
+at the pumps, was still lying on the transom cushions, sleeping; the
+Rev. Lacy was seated at the table smoking his pipe (all the ladies were
+in their state-rooms). He rose as the men entered, and looked at them
+inquiringly.
+
+"We're in a bit of a tight place," said the captain, as he coolly
+poured out half a tumblerful of brandy, "but I'm sending you, Mr. Lacy,
+and Father Roget, and the ladies away with Mr. Allen in one of the
+boats. Allen is a man whom I rely upon. He'll bring you ashore safely.
+He's a bit rough in his talk, but he's one of God's own chosen in a
+boat, and a fine sailor man--better than the mate, Captain Burr, or
+myself; isn't that so, Mr. Bruce?"
+
+The white-haired old mate bent his head in acknowledgment. Then he stood
+up stiff and stark, his rough bony hands clasped upon his chest.
+
+"I'll no' deny but that Mr. Allen is far and awa' the best man to have
+charge o' the boat. But as there is a meenister here, surely he will now
+offer up a prayer to the Almighty for those in peril on the sea, and
+especially implore Him to consider a sma' boat, deep to the gunwales."
+
+He looked at the clergyman, who at first made no reply, but stood with
+downcast eyes. The men looked at him expectantly; he put one hand on the
+table, and then slowly raised his face.
+
+"I think, gentlemen, that ... that Father Roget is the older man." He
+spoke haltingly, and a flush dyed his smooth, clean-shaven face from
+brow to chin. "Will you not ask him?" Then his eyes dropped again.
+
+Robertson, who was in a hurry, and yet had a sincere but secret respect
+for old Bruce's unobtrusive religious feelings, now backed up his mate's
+request.
+
+"I think, sir, that as the mate says, a bit of a short prayer would not
+be out of place just now, seeing the mess we are in. And that poor old
+gentleman over there is too done up to stand on his feet. So will you
+please begin, sir. Steward, call the ladies. We can no longer disguise
+from them, Mr. Lacy, that we are in a bad way--as bad a way as I have
+ever been in during my thirty years at sea."
+
+In a couple of minutes the two De Boos girls, Miss Weidermann, and the
+native girl Mina, came out of their cabins; and when the steward said
+that Mrs. Lacy felt too ill to leave her berth, her husband could not
+help giving an audible sigh of relief. Then he braced up and spoke with
+firmness.
+
+"Please shut Mrs. Lacy's door, steward. Mr. Bruce, will you lend me your
+church service--I do not want to go into my cabin for my own. My wife, I
+fear, has given way."
+
+The mate brought the church service, and then whilst the men stood with
+bowed heads, and the women knelt, the clergyman, with strong,
+unfaltering voice read the second of the prayers "To be used in Storms
+at Sea." He finished, and then sitting down again, placed one hand over
+his eyes.
+
+"_The living, the living shall praise Thee_."
+
+It was the old mate who spoke. He alone of the men had knelt beside the
+women, and when he rose his face bore such an expression of calmness and
+content, that Otway, who five minutes before had been silently cursing
+him for his "damned idiotcy," looked at him with a sudden mingled
+respect and wonder.
+
+Stepping across to the clergyman, Bruce respectfully placed his hand on
+his shoulder, and as he spoke his clear blue eyes smiled at the still
+kneeling women.
+
+"Cheer up, sir. God will protect ye and your gude wife, and us all. You,
+his meenister, have made supplication to Him, and He has heard. Dinna
+weep, ladies. We are in the care of One who holds the sea in the hollow
+of His hand."
+
+Then he followed the captain and the others on deck, Otway alone
+remaining to assist the steward.
+
+"For God's sake give me some brandy," said Lacy to him, in a low voice.
+
+Otway looked at him in astonishment. Was the man a coward after all?
+
+He brought the brandy, and with ill-disguised contempt placed it before
+him without a word. Lacy looked up at him, and his face flushed.
+
+"Oh, I'm not funking--not a d----d bit, I can assure you."
+
+Otway at once poured out a nip of brandy for himself, and clinked his
+glass against that of the clergyman.
+
+"Pon my soul, I couldn't make it out, and I apologise. But a man's
+nerves go all at once sometimes--can't help himself, you know. Mine did
+once when I was in the nigger-catching business in the Solomon Islands.
+Natives opened fire on us when our boats were aground in a creek, and
+some of our men got hit. I wasn't a bit scared of a smack from a bullet,
+but when I got a scratch on my hand from an arrow, I dropped in a blue
+funk, and acted like a cur. Knew it was poisoned, felt sure I'd die of
+lockjaw, and began to weep internally. Then the mate called me a rotten
+young cur, shook me up, and put my Snider into my hand. But I shall
+always feel funky at the sight even of a child's twopenny bow and arrow.
+Now I must go."
+
+The clergyman nodded and smiled, and then rising from his seat, he
+tapped at the door of his wife's state-room. She opened it, and then
+Otway, who was helping the steward, heard her sob hysterically.
+
+"Oh, Will, Will, why did you? How could you? I love you, Will dear, I
+love you, and if death comes to us in another hour, another minute, I
+shall die happily with your arms round me. But, Will dear, there is a
+God, I'm sure there _is_ a God.... I feel it in my heart, I feel it. And
+now that death is so near to us----"
+
+Lacy put his arms around her, and lifted her trembling figure upon his
+knees.
+
+"There, rest yourself, my pet."
+
+"Rest! Rest?" she said brokenly, as Lacy drew her to him. "How can I
+rest when I think of how I have sinned, and how I shall die! Will dear,
+when I heard you reading that prayer--"
+
+"I _had_ to do it, Nell."
+
+"Will, dear Will.... Perhaps God may forgive us both.... But as I sat
+here in my dark cabin, and listened to you reading that prayer, my
+husband's face came before me--the face that I thought was so dull and
+stupid. And his eyes seemed so soft and kind--"
+
+"For God's sake, my dear little woman, don't think of what is past. We
+have made the plunge together----"
+
+The woman uttered one last sobbing sigh. "I am not afraid to die, Will.
+I am not afraid, but when I heard you begin to read that prayer, my
+courage forsook me. I wanted to scream--to rush out and stop you, for it
+seemed to me as if you were doing it in sheer mockery."
+
+"I can only say again, Nell, that I could not help myself; made me feel
+pretty sick, I assure you."
+
+Their voices ceased, and presently Lacy stepped out into the main cabin,
+and then went on deck again.
+
+Robertson met him with a cheerful face. "Come on, Mr. Lacy. I've some
+good news for you--we are making less water! The leak must be taking up
+in some way." Then holding on to the rail with one hand, he shouted to
+the men at the pumps.
+
+"Shake her up, boys! shake her up. Here's Mr. Lacy come to lend a hand,
+and the supercargo and steward will be with you in a minute. Now I'm
+going below for a minute to tell the ladies, and mix you a bucket of
+grog. Shake her up, you, Tom Tarbucket, my bully boy with a glass eye!
+Shake her up, and when she sucks dry, I'll stand a sovereign all round."
+
+The willing crew answered him with a cheer, and Tom Tarbucket, a
+square-built, merry faced native of Savage Island, who was stripped to
+the waist, shouted out, amid the laughter of his shipmates--
+
+"Ay, ay, capt'in, we soon make pump suck dry if two Miss de Boos girl
+come."
+
+Robertson laughed in response, and then picking up a wooden bucket from
+under the fife rail, clattered down the companion way.
+
+"Where are you, Otway? Up you get on deck, and you too, steward. The
+leak is taken up and 'everything is lovely and the goose hangs high.' Up
+you go to the pumps, and make 'em suck. I'll bring up some grog
+presently."
+
+Then as Otway and the steward sprang up on deck, the captain stamped
+along the cabin in his sodden sea boots, banging at each door.
+
+"Come out, Sarah, come out Sukie, my little chickabiddies--there's to be
+no boat trip for you after all. Miss Weidermann, I've good news, good
+news! Mrs. Lacy, cheer up, dear lady. The leak has taken up, and you can
+go on deck and see your husband working at the pumps like a number one
+chop Trojan. Ha! Father Roget, give me your hand. You're a white man,
+sir, and ought to be a bishop."
+
+As he spoke to the now awakened old priest, the two De Boos girls, Mrs.
+Lacy and Miss Weidermann, all came out of their cabins, and Robertson
+shook hands with them, and lifting Sukie de Boos up between his two
+rough hands as if she were a little girl, he kissed her, and then made a
+grab at Sarah, who dodged behind Mrs. Lacy.
+
+"Now, father, don't you attempt to come on deck. Mrs. Lacy, just you
+keep him here. Sukie, my chick, you and Sarah get a couple of bottles of
+brandy, make this bucket full of half-and-half, and bring it on deck to
+the men."
+
+As he noisily stamped out of the cabin again, the old priest turned to
+the ladies, and raised his hand--
+
+"A brave, brave man--a very good English sailor. And now let us thank
+God for His mercies to us."
+
+The four ladies, with Mina, knelt, and then the good old man prayed
+fervently for a few minutes. Then Sukie de Boos and her sister flung
+their arms around Mrs. Lacy, and kissed her, and even Miss Weidermann,
+now thoroughly unstrung, began to cry hysterically. She had at first
+detested Mrs. Lacy as being altogether too scandalously young and pretty
+for a clergyman's wife. Now she was ready to take her to her bosom (that
+is, to her metaphorical bosom, as she had no other), for she believed
+that Mr. Lacy's prayer had saved them all, he being a Protestant
+clergyman, and therefore better qualified to avert imminent death than a
+priest of Rome.
+
+Sukie and Sally de Boos mixed the grog, took it on deck, and served it
+out to the men at the pumps.
+
+The carpenter sounded the well, and as he drew up the iron rod, the
+second mate gave a shout.
+
+"Only seven inches, captain."
+
+"Right, my boy. Take a good spell now, Mr. Allen. Mr. Bruce, we can give
+her a bit more lower canvas now. She'll stand it. Mr. Lacy, and you
+Captain Burr, come aft and get into some dry togs. The glass is rising
+steadily, and in a few hours we'll feel a bit more comfy."
+
+He prophesied truly, for the violence of the gale decreased rapidly,
+and when at the end of an hour the pumps sucked, the crew gave a cheer,
+and tired out as they were, eagerly sprang aloft to repair damages and
+then spread more sail, Sarah and Susan de Boos hauling and pulling at
+the running gear from the deck below. They were both girls of splendid
+physique, and, in a way, sailors, and had Robertson allowed them to do
+so, would have gone aloft and handled the canvas with the men.
+
+By four o'clock in the afternoon the little barque, with her wave-swept,
+bulwarkless decks, now drying under a bright sun, was running before a
+warm, good-hearted breeze, and the pumps were only attended to twice in
+every watch.
+
+Mrs. Lacy, Miss Weidermann, the De Boos girls, and the French priest
+were seated on the poop deck, on rugs and blankets spread out for them
+by Otway and the steward. Lacy, with Captain Burr, was pacing to and fro
+smoking his pipe, and laughing heartily at Sukie de Boos's attempts to
+make his wife smoke a cigarette. Presently old Bruce came along with the
+second mate and some men to set a new gaff-topsail, and the ladies rose
+to go below, so as to be out of the way.
+
+"Nae, nae, leddies, dinna go below," said the old mate cheerfully,
+"ye'll no' hinder us. And the sight o' sae many sweet, bonny faces will
+mak' us work a' the better. And how are ye now, Mrs. Lacy? Ah, the pink
+roses are in your cheeks once mair." And then he stepped quickly up to
+the young clergyman and took his hand.
+
+"Mr. Lacy, ye must pardon me, but I'm an auld man, and must hae my way.
+Ye're a gude, brave man;" then he added in a low voice, "and ye called
+upon Him, and He heard us."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Bruce," Lacy answered nervously, as he saw his wife's
+eyes droop, and a vivid blush dye her fair cheeks. Then he plucked the
+American captain by the sleeve and went below, and Sukie de Boos laughed
+loudly when in another minute they heard the pop of a bottle of soda
+water. She ran to the skylight and bent down.
+
+"You're a pair of exceedingly rude men. You might think of Father
+Roget--even if you don't think of us poor women. Mr. Otway, come here,
+you horrid, dirty-faced, ragged creature! Go below and get a glass of
+port wine for Father Roget, a bottle of champagne for Mrs. Lacy and my
+sister and myself, and a cup of tea for Mrs. Weidermann, and bring some
+biscuits, too."
+
+"Come and help me, then," said the supercargo, who was indeed
+dirty-faced and ragged.
+
+Sukie danced towards the companion way with him. Half-way down he put
+his arms round her and kissed her vigorously. She returned his kisses
+with interest, and laughingly smacked his cheek.
+
+"Let me go, Charlie Otway, you horrid, bold fellow. Now, one, two,
+three, or I'll call out and invoke the protection of the clergy, above
+and below--those on board this ship I mean, not those who are in heaven
+or elsewhere."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ten days later the _Tucopia_ sailed into Apia Harbour and dropped
+anchor inside Matautu Point just as the evening mists were closing their
+fleecy mantle around the verdant slopes of Vailima Mountain.
+
+The two half-caste girls, with their maid and Mr. and Mrs. Lacy, came to
+bid Otway and the captain a brief farewell, before they went ashore in
+the pilot boat to D'Acosta's hotel in Matafele.
+
+"Now remember, Otway, and you, Captain Robertson, and you, Captain Burr,
+you are all to dine with us at the hotel the day after to-morrow. And
+perhaps you, too, Father Roget will reconsider your decision and come
+too." It was Lacy who spoke.
+
+The gentle-voiced old Frenchman shook his head and smiled--"Ah no, it
+was impossible," he said. The bishop would not like him to so soon leave
+the Mission. But the bishop and his brothers at the Mission would look
+forward to have the good captain, and Mr. Burr, and Mr. Otway, and the
+ladies to accept his hospitality.
+
+Mrs. Lacy's soft little gloved hand was in Otway's.
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Otway, very, very sincerely for your many kindnesses
+to me. You have indeed been most generous to us both. It was cruel of us
+to take your cabin and compel you to sleep in the trade-room. But I
+shall never forget how kind you have been."
+
+All that was good in Otway came into his vicious heart and voiced softly
+through his lips.
+
+"I am only too glad, Mrs. Lacy.... I am indeed. I didn't like giving up
+my cabin to strangers at first, and was a bit of a beast when Mr. Harry
+told me we were taking two extra passengers. But I am glad now."
+
+He turned away, and went below with burning cheeks. Before the storm he
+had tried his best, late on several nights, to make Lacy drunk, and to
+keep him drunk; but Lacy could stand as much or more grog than he could
+himself; and when he heard that passionate, sobbing appeal, "Oh, Will,
+Will, how could you?" his better nature was stirred, and his fierce
+sensual desire for her changed into a sentimental affection and respect.
+He knew her secret, and now, instead of wishing to take advantage of it,
+felt he was too much of a man to abuse his knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Supper was over, and as the skipper, Burr, and Otway paced the
+quarter-deck before going ashore to play a game or two of billiards and
+meet some friends, a boat came alongside, and a man stepped on deck and
+inquired for the captain. As he followed Robertson down the companion,
+Otway saw that he was a well-dressed, rather gentlemanly-looking young
+man of about five and twenty.
+
+"Who's that joker, I wonder?" he said to Burr; "not any one living in
+Samoa, unless he's a new-comer. Hope he won't stay long--it's eight
+o'clock now."
+
+Ten minutes later the steward came to him.
+
+"The captain wishes to see you, sir."
+
+Otway entered the cabin. Robertson, with frowning face, motioned him to
+a seat. The strange gentleman sat near the captain smoking a cigar, and
+with some papers in his hands.
+
+"Mr. Otway, I have sent for you. This gentleman has a warrant for the
+arrest of Mr. Lacy, issued by the New Zealand Government and initialled
+by the British Consul here."
+
+Otway rose to the occasion. He nodded to the stranger and sat down
+quietly.
+
+"Yes, sir?" he asked inquiringly of Robertson.
+
+"You will please tell my supercargo your business, mister," said the
+captain gruffly to the stranger; "he can tell you all you wish to
+know--that is, if he cares to do so. I don't see that your warrant holds
+any force here in Samoa. You can't execute it. There's no government
+here, no police, no anything, and the British Consul can't act on a
+warrant issued from New Zealand. It is of no more use in Samoa than it
+would be at Cape Horn."
+
+"Now, sir, make haste," said Otway with a mingled and studied insolence
+and politeness. He already began to detest the stranger.
+
+"I am a detective of the police force of New Zealand, and I have come
+from Auckland to arrest William Barton, alias the Rev. Wilfrid Lacy, on
+a charge of stealing twenty thousand, five hundred pounds from the
+National Bank of Christchurch, of which he was manager. I believe that
+twenty thousand pounds of the money he has stolen is on board this
+vessel at this moment, and I now demand access to his cabin."
+
+"Do you? How are you going to enforce your demand, my cocksure friend?"
+
+Otway rose, and placing his two hands on the table, looked insultingly
+at the detective. "What rot you are talking, man!"
+
+The detective drew back, alarmed and startled.
+
+"The British Consul has endorsed my warrant to arrest this man," he
+said, "and it will go hard with any one who attempts to interfere with
+me in the performance of my duty."
+
+Otway shot a quick, triumphant glance at the captain.
+
+"The Consul is, and always was, a silly old ass. You have come on a
+fool's errand; and are going on the wrong tack by making threats. That
+idiotic warrant of yours is of no more use to you than a sheet of fly
+paper--Samoa is outside British jurisdiction. The High Commissioner for
+the Western Pacific would not have endorsed such a fool of a document,
+and I'll report the matter to him.... Now, sit down and tell me what you
+_do_ want, and I'll try and help you all I can. But don't try to bluff
+us--it's only wasting your time. Steward, bring us something to drink."
+
+As soon as the steward brought them "something to drink" Otway became
+deeply sympathetic with the detective, and Robertson, who knew his
+supercargo well, smiled inwardly at the manner he adopted.
+
+"Now, just tell us, Mr.--O'Donovan, I think you said is your name--what
+is all the trouble? I need hardly tell you that whilst both the captain
+and myself felt annoyed at your dictatorial manner, we are both sensible
+men, and will do all in our power to assist you. Our firm's reputation
+has to be studied--has it not, captain? We don't want it to be
+insinuated that we helped an embezzler to escape, do we?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied Robertson, puffing slowly at his cigar,
+watching Otway keenly through his half-closed eyelids, and wondering
+what that astute young gentleman was driving at. "I guess that you, Mr.
+Otway, will do all that is right and cor-rect."
+
+"Thank you, sir," replied Otway humbly, and with great seriousness, "I
+know my duty to my employers, and I know that this gentleman may be led
+into very serious trouble through the dense stupidity of the British
+Consul here."
+
+He turned to Mr. O'Donovan--"Are you aware, Mr. O'Donikin--I beg your
+pardon, O'Donovan--that the British Consul here is not, officially, the
+British Consul. He is merely a commercial agent, like the United States
+Consul. Neither are accredited by their Governments to act officially on
+behalf of their respective countries, and even if they were, there is no
+extradition treaty with the Samoan Islands, which is a country without a
+recognised government. Of course, Mr. O'Donovan, you are acting in good
+faith; but you have no more legal right nor the power to arrest a man in
+Samoa, than you have to arrest one in Manchuria or Patagonia. Of course,
+old Johns (the British Consul) doesn't know this, or he would not have
+made such a fool of himself by endorsing a warrant from an irresponsible
+judge of a New Zealand court. But as I told you, I shall aid you in
+every possible way."
+
+O'Donovan was no fool. He knew that all that Otway had said was
+absolutely correct, but he braced himself up.
+
+"I daresay what you say may be right, Mr. Supercargo. But I've come from
+New Zealand to get this joker, and by blazes I mean to get him, and take
+him back with me to New Zealand. And I mean to have those twenty
+thousand sovereigns to take back as well."
+
+"Well, then, why the devil don't you go and get your man? He's at Joe
+D'Acosta's hotel with his wife."
+
+"I don't want to be bothered with him just yet. I have no place to put
+him into. The Californian mail boat from San Francisco is not due here
+for another ten days. But I know that he hasn't taken his stolen money
+ashore yet, and you had better hand it over to me at once. I can get
+_him_ at any time."
+
+Otway leant back in his chair and laughed.
+
+"I don't doubt that, Mr. O'Donovan. If you have enough money to do it,
+you can do as you say--get this man at any time. But you want to have
+some guns behind you to enforce it; and then his capture won't affect
+our custody of the money. If the Consul instigates you to make an attack
+on the ship, you will do so at your peril, for we shall resist any
+piratical attempt."
+
+O'Donovan's face fell. "You said you would assist me?"
+
+"So I will," replied Otway, lying genially, "But you must point out a
+way. The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, in Fiji, is the only
+man who could give you power to arrest the man and convey him to New
+Zealand, and the moment you show me the High or the Deputy High
+Commissioner's order to hand over the money, and Lacy's other effects,
+I'll do so."
+
+The detective made his last stroke.
+
+"I can take the law into my own hands and chance the consequences. The
+Consul will supply me with a force--"
+
+Robertson smiled grimly, and pointed to the rack of Snider rifles around
+the mizen-mast at the head of the table.
+
+"You and your force will have a bad time of it then, and be shot down
+before you can put foot on my deck. I've never seen a shark eat a
+policeman, but there seems a chance of it now."
+
+O'Donovan laughed uneasily, then he changed his tactics.
+
+"Now look here, gentlemen," he said confidentially, leaning across the
+table, "I can see I'm in a bit of a hole, but I'm a business man, and
+you are business men, and I think we understand one another, eh? As you
+say, my warrant doesn't hold good here in Samoa. But the Consul will
+back me up, and if I can take this chap back to New Zealand it means a
+big thing for me. Now, what's your figure?"
+
+"Two hundred each for the skipper and myself," answered Otway promptly.
+
+"Done. You shall have it."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Give me till to-morrow afternoon. I've only a hundred and fifty pounds
+with me, and I'll have to raise the rest."
+
+"Very well, it's a deal. But mind, you'll have to take care to be here
+before the parson. He's coming off at eleven o'clock."
+
+"Trust me for that, gentlemen."
+
+"I'm sorry for his wife," said Otway meditatively.
+
+O'Donovan grinned. "Ah, I haven't told you the yarn--she's not his wife!
+She bolted from her husband, who is a big swell in Auckland, a Mr.----."
+
+"How did you get on their tracks?"
+
+"Sydney police found out that two people answering their description had
+sailed for the Islands in the _Tucopia_, and cabled over to us. We
+thought they had lit out for America. I only got here the day before
+yesterday in the _Ryno_, from Auckland."
+
+Otway paid him some very florid compliments on his smartness, and then
+after another drink or two, the detective went on shore, highly pleased.
+
+As soon as he was gone, Otway turned to Robertson.
+
+"You won't stand in my way, Robertson, will you?" he asked--"I want to
+see the poor devils get away."
+
+"You take all the responsibility, then."
+
+"I will," and then he rapidly told the skipper his plan, and set to
+work by at once asking the second mate to get ready the boat and then
+come back to the cabin.
+
+"All ready," said Allen, five minutes later.
+
+"Then come with the steward and help me with this gear."
+
+He unlocked the door of Lacy's state-room, lit the swinging candle, and
+quickly passed out Mr. and Mrs. Lacy's remaining luggage to the second
+mate and steward. Three small leather trunks, marked "Books with Care,"
+were especially heavy, and he guessed their contents.
+
+"Stow them safely in the boat, Allen. Don't make more noise than you can
+help. I'll be with you in a minute."
+
+Going into his own cabin, he took a large handbag, threw into it his
+revolver and two boxes of cartridges, then carried it into the
+trade-room, and added half a dozen tins of the brand of tobacco which he
+knew Lacy liked, and then filled the remaining space with pint bottles
+of champagne. Then he whipped up a sheet or two of letter paper and an
+envelope from the cabin-table, thrust them into his coat pocket, and,
+bag in hand, stepped quickly on deck. The old mate was in his cabin, and
+had not heard anything.
+
+"Give it to her, boys," he said to the crew, taking the steer-oar in his
+hand, and heading the boat towards a small fore-and-aft schooner lying
+half a mile away in the Matafele horn of the reef encircling Apia
+Harbour.
+
+The four native seamen bent to their oars in silence, and sped swiftly
+through the darkness over the calm waters of the harbour. The schooner
+showed no riding light on her forestay, but, on the after deck under the
+awning, a lamp was burning, and three men--the captain, mate, and
+boatswain--were playing cards on the skylight.
+
+Otway jumped on deck, just as the men rose to meet him.
+
+"Great Ascensial Jehosophat! Why, it's you, Mr. Otway?" cried the
+captain, a little clean-shaven man, as he shook hands with the
+supercargo. "Well, now, I was just wondering whether I'd go ashore and
+try and drop across you. Say, tell me now, hev you any good tinned beef
+and a case of Winchesters you can sell me?"
+
+"Yes, both," replied Otway, shaking hands with the three in turn--they
+were all old acquaintances, especially Le Brun, the mate. "But come
+below with me, Revels; I've important business, and it has to be done
+right away--this very night."
+
+Revels led the way below into the schooner's cabin, and at once produced
+a bottle of Bourbon and a couple of glasses.
+
+"No time to drink, Revels.... All right, just a little, then. Now, tell
+me, do you want to make--and make it easy--five hundred pounds?"
+
+"Guess I do."
+
+"Are you ready for sea?"
+
+"I was thinking of sailing on a cruise among the Tokelau Islands in a
+day or two."
+
+"Then don't think of it. If you put to sea to-night for a longer voyage,
+I can guarantee you that you will get five hundred pounds--if you will
+take two passengers on board, and put to sea as soon as they come
+alongside."
+
+"Where do they want to go?"
+
+"That I can't say. Manila or Hongkong, most likely. It'll pay you."
+
+"Is the money safe?"
+
+Otway struck his hand on the table. "Safe as rain, Revels. They have
+plenty. I have it here alongside, and if you don't get five hundred
+sovereigns paid you when you have dropped Samoa astern, you can come
+back with your passengers, and I'll give you fifty pounds myself."
+
+"Friends of yours?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That's enough fur me, Otway. Now, just tell me what to do."
+
+"Tell your mate to get your boat ready to go ashore, while I write a
+note."
+
+He took a sheet of paper, and hurriedly wrote in pencil:
+
+    "DEAR LACY,--Don't hesitate to follow my instructions. There's a man
+    here from New Zealand. Tried to get access to your cabin; bluffed
+    him. You and your wife must follow bearer of this note to his boat,
+    which will bring you to a schooner. The captain's name is Revels. He
+    expects you, and you can trust him. Have pledged him my word that
+    you will give him �500 to land you at Manila or thereabouts; also
+    that you will hand it to him as soon as the schooner is clear of the
+    land. _All_ your luggage is on board the schooner, awaiting you.
+    Allen helped me. You might send him a present by Revels. Goodbye,
+    and all good luck. One last word--_be quick, be quick_!"
+
+"Boat is ready," said Revels.
+
+"Right," and Otway closed the letter and handed it to the mate. "Here
+you are, Le Brun. Now, listen. Pull in to the mouth of the creek at the
+French Mission, just beside the bridge. Leave your boat there and then
+take this letter to D'Acosta's Hotel and ask to see Mr. Lacy. If he and
+his wife have gone out for a walk, you must follow them and give him the
+letter; but I feel pretty sure you'll find them on the verandah. Bring
+them off on board as quickly and as quietly as possible. No one will
+take any notice of the boat in the creek. Oh! and tell Mr. Lacy to be
+dead sure not to bring anything in the way of even a small bag with
+him--Joe D'Acosta might wonder. I'll settle the hotel bill later on. Are
+you clear?"
+
+"Clear as mud," replied Le Brun, a big, black-whiskered Guernsey man.
+
+"Then goodbye."
+
+The schooner's boat, manned by two hands only, pushed off, and then
+Revels turned to Otway.
+
+"Shall I heave short so as to be ready?"
+
+"Heave short, be d----d!" replied Otway testily. "No, just lie nice and
+quiet, and as soon as you have your passengers on board slip your cable.
+I'll see that your anchor is fished up for you. And even if you lost
+your anchor and a few fathoms of chain it doesn't matter against five
+hundred sovereigns. The people on shore would be sure to hear the sound
+of the windlass pawls, and there's a man here from Auckland--a
+detective--who might make a bold stroke, get a dozen native bullies and
+collar you. So slip, my boy, slip. There's a fine healthy breeze which
+will take you clear of the reef in ten minutes."
+
+The two men shook hands, and Otway stepped into his boat, which he
+steered in towards the principal jetty.
+
+Jumping out he walked along the roadway which led from Matafele to Apia.
+As he passed the British Consul's house he saw Mr. O'Donovan standing on
+the verandah talking to the Consul. He waved his hand to them, and
+cheerfully invited the detective to come along to "Johnnie Hall's" and
+play a game of billiards.
+
+Mr. O'Donovan, little thinking that Otway had a purpose in view, took
+the bait. The Consul knew Otway, and, in a measure, dreaded him, for the
+supercargo's knowledge of certain transactions in connection with the
+sale of arms to natives, in which he (the Consul) had taken a leading
+and lucrative part. So when he saw the supercargo of the _Tucopia_
+beckoning to O'Donovan he smiled genially at him, and hurriedly told the
+detective to go.
+
+"He's a most astute and clever young scoundrel, Mr. O'Donovan, and in a
+way we are at his mercy. But you shall have the four hundred pounds in
+the morning--not later than noon. This man Barton must be brought to
+justice at any cost."
+
+"Just so, sir; and you will get a hundred out of the business, any way,"
+replied O'Donovan, who had gauged the Consul's morality pretty fairly.
+
+As Otway and the detective walked towards the hotel known as "Johnny
+Hall's" the former said lazily--
+
+"Look here, Mr. O'Donovan. Are the skipper and myself to get those four
+hundred sovs to-morrow or not? To tell you the exact truth, I have a
+fair amount of doubt about your promise. Where are you going to get the
+money?"
+
+"That's all right, Mr. Otway. You're a business man. And you and the
+skipper will have your two hundred each before one o'clock to-morrow.
+The Consul is doing the necessary."
+
+"Right, my boy," said Otway effusively. "Now we'll play a game or two at
+Johnny's and have some fun with the girls."
+
+By eleven o'clock Mr. O'Donovan was comfortably half drunk, and Otway
+led him out on to the verandah to look at the harbour, shimmering under
+the starlight. They sat down on two cane lounges, and the supercargo's
+keen eye saw that Revel's schooner had gone. He breathed freely, and
+then brought Mr. O'Donovan a large whisky and soda.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the morning Mr. O'Donovan and Mr. William Johns, the British Consul,
+were in a state of frenzy on discovering that Mr. and Mrs. Lacy had
+escaped during the night in the schooner _Solafanua_. The Consul knew
+that Otway was at the bottom of the matter, but dared not say so, but
+O'Donovan, who had more pluck and nothing to lose, lost his temper and
+came on board the _Tucopia_ just as she was being hauled up on the beach
+to get at the leak.
+
+"You're a dirty sweep," he said to Otway.
+
+The supercargo hit him between the eyes, and sent him down. Allen picked
+him up, dumped him into the boat alongside, and sent him ashore.
+
+When the _Tucopia_ lay high and dry on Apia beach Otway and old Bruce
+walked round under her counter and looked for the leak. As the skipper
+had surmised, a butt-end had started, but the gaping orifice was now
+choked and filled with a large piece of seaweed.
+
+"The prayer of one of God's ain ministers has saved us," said the Scotch
+mate, pointing upward.
+
+"No doubt," replied Otway, who knew that the good old man had heard
+nothing of what had happened.
+
+
+
+
+_The Man in the Buffalo Hide_
+
+
+Twelve years ago in a North Queensland town I was told the story of "The
+Man in the Buffalo Hide" by Ned D----. He (D----) was then a prosperous
+citizen, having made a small fortune by "striking it rich" on the
+Gilbert and Etheridge Rivers goldfields. Returning from the arid wastes
+of the Queensland back country to Sydney, he tired of leading an
+inactive life, and hearing that gold had been discovered on one of the
+Solomon Islands, he took passage thither in the Sydney whaling barque
+_Costa Rica_ packet, and though he returned to Australia without
+discovering gold in the islands, he had kept one of the most interesting
+logs of a whaling cruise it has ever been my fortune to read. The master
+of the whaleship was Captain J.Y. Carpenter, a man who is well known
+and highly respected, not only in Sydney (where he now resides), but
+throughout the East Indies and China, where he had lived for over thirty
+years. And it was from Captain Carpenter who was one of the actors in
+this twice-told tragedy, that D----heard this story of Chinese
+vengeance. He (D----) related it to me in '88, and I wish I could write
+the tale as well and vividly as he told it. However, I wrote it out for
+him then and there. Much to our disgust the editor of the little journal
+to whom we sent the MS., considered it a fairy tale, and cut it down to
+some two or three hundred words. I mention these apparently unnecessary
+details merely that the reader may not think that the tale is fiction,
+for two years or so after, Captain Carpenter corroborated my friend's
+story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was after the Taeping rebellion had been stamped out in blood and
+fire by Gordon and his "Ever Victorious Army," and the Viceroy (Li Hung
+Chang) had taken up his quarters in Canton, and was secretly torturing
+and beheading those prisoners whom he had sworn to the English
+Government to spare.
+
+Carpenter was in command of a Chinese Government despatch vessel--a
+side-wheeler--which was immediately under the Viceroy's orders. She was
+but lightly armed, but was very fast, as fast went in those days. His
+ship had been lying in the filthy river for about a week, when, one
+afternoon, a mandarin came off with a written order for him to get ready
+to proceed to sea at daylight on the following morning. Previous
+experience of his estimable and astute Chinese employers warned him not
+to ask the fat-faced, almond-eyed mandarin any questions as to the
+steamer's destination, or the duration of the voyage. He simply said
+that he would be ready at the appointed time.
+
+At daylight another mandarin, named Kwang--one of much higher rank than
+his visitor of the previous day--came on board. He was attended by
+thirty of the most ruffianly-looking scoundrels--even for Chinamen--that
+the captain had ever seen. They were all well armed, and came off in a
+large, well-appointed boat, which, the mandarin intimated with a polite
+smile, was to be towed, if she was too heavy to be hoisted aboard. A
+couple of hands were put in her, and she was veered astern. Then the
+anchor was lifted, and the steamer started on her eighty miles trip down
+the river to the sea, the mandarin informing the captain that he would
+name the ship's destination as soon as they were clear of the land.
+
+Most of Carpenter's officers were Europeans--Englishmen or
+Americans--and one or two of them who spoke Chinese, attempted to enter
+into conversation with the thirty braves, and endeavour to learn the
+object of the steamer's mission. Their inquiries were met either with a
+mocking jest or downright insult, and presently the mandarin, who
+hitherto had preserved a smiling and affable demeanour as he sat on the
+quarter-deck, turned to the captain with a sullen and ferocious aspect,
+and bade him remind his officers that they had no business to question
+the servants of the "high and excellent Viceroy."
+
+But though neither Carpenter nor any of his officers could learn aught
+about this sudden mission, one of their servants, a Chinese who was
+deeply attached to his master, whispered tremblingly to him that the
+mandarin and the thirty braves were in quest of one of the Viceroy's
+most hated enemies--a noted leader of the Taepings who had escaped the
+bloodied hands of Li Hung Chang, and whose retreat had been betrayed to
+the cruel, merciless Li the previous day.
+
+Once clear of the land, the mandarin, with a polite smile and many
+compliments to Carpenter on the skilful and expeditious manner in which
+he had navigated the steamer down the river, requested him to proceed to
+a certain point on the western side of the island of Formosa.
+
+"When you are within twenty miles of the land, captain," he said
+suavely, "you will make the steamer stop, and my men and I will leave
+you in the boat. You must await our return, which may be on the
+following day, or the day after, or perhaps longer still. But whether I
+am absent one, or two, or six days, you must keep your ship in the
+position I indicate as nearly as possible. You must avoid observation
+from the shore, you must be watchful, diligent, and patient, and, when
+you see my boat returning, you must make your engines work quickly, and
+come towards us with all speed. High commendation and a great reward
+from the serene nobleness of our great Viceroy--who has already
+condescended to notice your honourable ability and great integrity in
+your profession--awaits you." Then with another smile and bow he went to
+his cabin.
+
+As soon as the steamer reached the place indicated by the mandarin the
+engines were stopped. The boat, which was towing astern, was hauled
+alongside, and the thirty truculent "braves," with a Chinese pilot and
+the ever-smiling mandarin, got into her and pushed off for the shore.
+That they were all picked men, who could handle an oar as well as a
+rifle, was very evident from the manner in which they sent the big boat
+along towards the blue outline of the distant shore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For two days Carpenter and his officers waited and watched, the steamer
+lying and rolling about upon a long swell, and under a hot and brazen
+sun. Then, about seven o'clock in the morning, as the sea haze lifted, a
+look-out on the foreyard hailed the deck and said the boat was in sight.
+The steamer's head was at once put towards her under a full head of
+steam, and in another hour the mandarin and his braves were alongside.
+
+The mandarin clambered up on deck, his always-smiling face (which
+Carpenter and his officers had come to detest) now darkly exultant.
+
+"You have done well, sir," he said to the captain; "the Viceroy himself,
+when my own miserable worthlessness abases itself before him, shall know
+how truly and cleverly you and your officers (who shall be honoured for
+countless ages in the future) have obeyed the behests which I have had
+the never-to-be-extinguished honour to convey from him to you. There is
+a prisoner in the boat--a prisoner who is to be tried before those high
+and merciful judges whose Heaven-sent authority your valorous commander
+of the Ever Victorious Army has upheld."
+
+Carpenter, being a sailor man before all else, swallowed the mandarin's
+compliments for all they were worth, and I can imagine him giving a
+grumpy nod to the smiling minion of the Viceroy as he ordered "the
+prisoner" to be brought on deck, and the boat to be veered astern for
+towing.
+
+The official interposed oilily. There was no need, he said, to tow the
+boat to Canton if she could not be hoisted on board, and was likely to
+impede the steamer's progress. Some of his braves could remain in her,
+and the insignia of the Viceroy which they wore would ensure both their
+and the boat's safety--no pirates would touch them.
+
+The captain said that to tow such a heavy boat for such a long distance
+would certainly delay the steamer's arrival in Canton by at least six or
+eight hours. The mandarin smiled sweetly, and said that as speed was
+everything the most honourable navigator, whom he now had the privilege
+to address, and who was so soon to be distinguished by his mightiness
+the Viceroy, could at once let the boat which had conveyed his worthless
+self into the sunshine of his (the captain's) presence, go adrift.
+
+At a sign from Kwang, six of his cutthroats clambered down the side into
+the boat, which was at once cast oft; the steamer was sent along under a
+full head of steam, and the captain was about to ascend the bridge when
+the mandarin stayed him, and requested that a meal should be at once
+prepared in the cabin for the prisoner, who, he said, was somewhat
+exhausted, for his capture was only effected after he had killed three
+and wounded half a dozen of "the braves." So courageous a man, he added
+softly, whatever his offence might be, must not be allowed to suffer the
+pangs of hunger and thirst.
+
+Carpenter gave the necessary order to the steward with a sensation of
+pleasure, feeling that he had done the suave and gentle-voiced Kwang an
+injustice in imagining him to be like most Chinese officials--utterly
+indifferent and callous to human suffering. Then he stepped along the
+deck towards the bridge just as two of the braves lifted the prisoner to
+his feet, which a third had freed from a thong of hide, bound so tightly
+around them that it had literally cut into the flesh. His hands were
+tied in the same manner, and round his neck was an iron collar, with a
+chain about six feet in length which was secured at the end to another
+band around the waist of one of the "braves."
+
+As the prisoner stood erect, Carpenter saw that he was a man of
+herculean proportions and over six feet three or four inches in height.
+His arms and naked chest were cut, bleeding and bruised, and a bamboo
+gag was in his mouth; but what at once attracted the captain's attention
+and sympathy was the man's face.
+
+So calm, steadfast, and serene were his clear, undaunted eyes; so proud,
+lofty, and contemptuous and yet so dignified his bearing, as he glanced
+at his guards when they bade him walk, that Carpenter, drawing back a
+little, raised his hand in salute.
+
+In an instant the deep, dark eyes lit up, and the tortured, distorted
+mouth would have smiled had it not been for the cruel gag. But twice he
+bent his head, and his eyes did that which was denied to his lips.
+
+Captain Carpenter was deeply moved. The man's heroic fortitude, his
+noble bearing under such physical suffering, the tender, woman-like
+resignation in the eyes which could yet smile into his, affected him so
+strongly that he could not help asking one of the "braves" the
+prisoner's name.
+
+An insolent, threatening gesture was the only answer. But the prisoner
+had heard, and bent his head in acknowledgment. When he raised it again
+and saw that Carpenter had now taken off his cap, tears trickled down
+his cheeks. In another moment he was hurried along the deck into the
+cabin, and half a dozen "braves" stood guard at the door to prevent
+intrusion, whilst the gag was removed, and the victim of the Viceroy's
+vengeance was urged to eat. Whether he did so or not was never known,
+for half an hour afterwards he was removed to one of the state-rooms,
+where he was closely guarded by Kwang's cutthroats. When he was next
+seen by Carpenter and the officers of the steamer the gag was again in
+his mouth, but the calm, resolute eyes met theirs as it trying to tell
+them that the heroic soul within the tortured body knew no fear, and
+felt and appreciated their sympathy.
+
+On the afternoon of the third day after leaving Formosa the steamer
+ploughed her way up the muddy waters of the river, and came to an anchor
+off the city at a place which was within half a mile of the Viceroy's
+residence. The mandarin requested the captain to fire three guns, and
+hoist the Chinese flag at both the fore and main peaks.
+
+This signal was, so Kwang condescended to say, to inform His
+Illustriousness the Ever-Merciful Viceroy that he, Kwang, his crawling
+dependent, guided by Carpenter's high intelligence, and supreme and
+honoured skill as a navigator, had achieved the object which His
+Illustriousness desired.
+
+The captain listened to all this "flam," bowed his acknowledgments, and
+then suddenly asked the mandarin the prisoner's name.
+
+Again the fat, complacent face darkened, and almost scowled. "No," he
+replied sullenly, he himself "was not permitted" to know the prisoner's
+name. His crime? He did not know. When was he to be tried? To-morrow.
+Then he rose and abruptly requested the captain to ask no more
+questions. But, he added, with a smile, he could promise him that he
+should at least see the captive again.
+
+In a few minutes a boat came off, and the prisoner, closely guarded, and
+with his face covered with a piece of cloth, was hurried ashore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Four days had passed--days of heat so intense that even the Chinese crew
+of the steamer lay about the decks under the awning, stripped to their
+waists, and fanning themselves languidly. During this time the captain
+and his officers, by careful inquiries, ascertained that the unfortunate
+prisoner was a brother of one of the Wangs, or seven "Heavenly Kings,"
+who had led the Taeping forces, and that for a long time past the
+Viceroy had made most strenuous efforts to effect his capture, being
+particularly exasperated with him, not only for his courage in the
+field, and the influence he had wielded over the unfortunate Taepings,
+who were wiped out by Gordon and the Ever-Victorious Army, but also
+because he refused to accept Li Hung Chang's sworn word to spare his
+life if he surrendered; for well he knew that a death by torture awaited
+him. Gordon himself, it was said, revolver in hand, and with tears of
+rage streaming down his face, had sought to find and shoot the Viceroy
+for the cruel murder of other leaders who had surrendered to him under
+the solemn promise of their lives being spared.
+
+Late in the afternoon, a messenger came on board with a note to the
+captain. It was from the mandarin Kwang, and contained but a line.
+"Follow the bearer, who will guide you to the prisoner."
+
+An hour later Carpenter was conducted through a narrow door which was
+set in a very high wall of great thickness. He found himself in a garden
+of the greatest beauty, and magnificent proportions. Temples and other
+buildings of the most elaborate and artistic design and construction
+showed here and there amid a profusion of gloriously-foliaged trees and
+flowering shrubs. No sound broke the silence except the twittering of
+birds; and not a single person was visible.
+
+The guide, who had not yet uttered a single word, now turned and
+motioned Carpenter to follow him along a winding path, paved with white
+marble slabs, and bordered with gaily-hued flowers. Suddenly they
+emerged upon a lovely sward of the brightest green, in the centre of
+which a fountain played, sending its fine feathery spray high in air.
+
+On one side of the fountain were a number of "braves" who stood in a
+close circle, and, as Carpenter approached, two of them silently stepped
+out of the cordon, brought their rifles to the salute, and the guide
+whispered to him to enter.
+
+Within the circle was Kwang, who was seated in his chair of office. He
+rose and greeted the captain politely.
+
+"I promised you that you should again see the criminal in whom you and
+your officers took such a deep and benevolent interest. I now fulfil
+that promise--and leave you." And, with a malevolent smile, he bowed and
+disappeared.
+
+The guide touched Carpenter's arm.
+
+"Look," he said in a whisper.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Within a few inches of a wavering line of spray from the fountain,
+purposely diverted so as to fall upon the grass, lay what appeared at
+first sight to be a round bundle tied up in a buffalo hide. A black
+swarm of flies buzzed and buzzed over and around it.
+
+"Draw near and look," said the harsh voice of the officer who commanded
+the grim, silent guard, as he stepped up to the strange-looking bundle,
+and waved his fan quickly to and fro over a protuberance in the centre.
+
+A black cloud of flies arose, and revealed a sight that will haunt
+Carpenter to his dying day--the purpled, distorted face of a living man.
+The eyelids had been cut off, and only two dreadful, bloodied, glaring
+things of horror appealed mutely to God. The victim's knees had been
+drawn up to his chin, and only his head was visible; for the fresh
+buffalo hide in which his body had been sewn, fitted tightly around his
+neck.
+
+Shuddering with horror, and yet fascinated with the dreadful spectacle,
+Carpenter asked the officer how long the prisoner had been tortured.
+
+"Four days," was the reply.
+
+For the buffalo, the hide of which was to be the prisoner's death-wrap,
+was in readiness the moment the steamer arrived, and ten minutes after
+the signal was hoisted, the creature was killed, the hide stripped off,
+and the prisoner sewn up in it, only his head being left free.
+
+Then he was carried to a heated room, so that the hide should contract
+quickly. From there he was taken to the fountain, where his eyelids were
+cut off, and then he was laid upon the ground, his mouth just within a
+few inches of a spray from the fountain.
+
+And the Viceroy came, saw, approved, and smiled, and assigned to Kwang
+the honoured post of watching his hated enemy die under slow and
+agonising torture. To attract the flies, honeyed water was applied to
+the prisoner's shaven head and face. And the guards, now and then as his
+thirst increased, offered him brine to drink.
+
+"He is still alive," the brutal-faced Tartar officer said genially, as
+he touched one of the dreadful eyeballs, and the poor, tortured
+creature's lips moved slightly.
+
+Sick at heart and almost overcome with horror, Captain Carpenter, with
+quickened footsteps, passed through the cordon of guards, and followed
+his guide from the dreadful spot.
+
+In a few minutes he was without the wall, and a sigh of relief broke
+from him as he set out towards the river.
+
+
+
+
+A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS
+
+(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)
+
+
+
+
+
+_A Cruise in the South Seas_
+
+(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)
+
+
+The traveller who makes a hurried trip in an excursion steamer through
+the Cook, Society, Samoan, or Tongan Islands has but little opportunity
+of seeing anything of the social life of the natives, or getting either
+fishing or shooting; for it is but rarely that the vessel remains for
+more than forty-eight hours at any of the ports visited. Personally, if
+I wanted to have an enjoyable cruise among the various island groups in
+the South Pacific I should avoid the "excursion" steamer as I would the
+plague. In the first place, one sees next to nothing for his passage
+money if he fatuously takes a ticket in either Sydney or New Zealand for
+"a round trip to Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and back." Certainly, he will
+enjoy the sea voyage, for in the Australasian winter months the weather
+in the South Seas is never very hot, and cloudless skies and a smooth
+sea may almost be relied upon from April until the end of July. At such
+places as Nukualofa, the little capital of the Tonga Islands, an
+excursion steamer will remain for perhaps forty hours; at Apia, in
+Samoa, forty-eight hours; and at Papeite, the capital of the French
+island of Tahiti, forty-eight hours. At the two latter places the
+traveller will be charmed by the lovely scenery, and disgusted by the
+squalid appearance of the natives; for within the last ten years great
+changes have occurred, and the native communities inhabiting the island
+ports, such as Apia and Papeite, have degenerated into the veriest
+loafers, spongers, and thieves. The appearance of a strange European in
+any of the environs of Apia is the signal for an onslaught of beggars of
+all ages and both sexes, who will pester his life out for tobacco; if he
+says he does not smoke, they say a sixpence will do as well. If he
+refuses he is pretty sure to be insulted by some half-naked ruffian, and
+will be glad to get back to the ship or to the refuge of an hotel. And
+yet, away from the contaminating influences of the town the white
+stranger will meet with politeness and respect wherever he
+goes--particularly if he is an Englishman--and will at once note the
+pleasing difference in the manners of the natives. Yet it must now be
+remembered that Samoa--with the exception of the beautiful island of
+Tutuila--is German territory, and German officials are none too effusive
+to Englishmen or Americans--in Samoa.
+
+But if any one wants to spend an enjoyable time in the South Seas let
+him avoid the "excursion ship" and go there in a trading steamer. There
+are several of these now sailing out of Australasian ports, and there is
+a choice of groups to visit. If a four months' voyage is not too long, a
+passage may be obtained in a small, but fairly fast and comfortable
+boat of 600 tons sailing from Sydney, which visits over forty islands in
+her cruise from Niu� or Savage Island, ten days' steam from Sydney, to
+Jaluit in the Marshall Islands. But this particular cruise I would not
+recommend to any one in search of a variety of beautiful scenery, for
+nearly all of the islands visited are of the one type--low-lying sandy
+atolls, densely verdured with coco-palms, and very monotonous from their
+sameness of appearance. Their inhabitants, however, are widely different
+in manners, customs, and general mode of life. To the ethnologist such a
+cruise among the Ellice, Gilbert, and Marshall Islands would no doubt be
+full of interest; but to the traveller in search of either beautiful
+scenery or sport (except fishing) they would be disappointing.
+
+Let us suppose that the intending traveller desires to make a stay of
+some two or three months in the Samoan Group. He can reach there easily
+enough from Sydney or Auckland by steamer once a month, either by one of
+the Union Steamship Company's regular traders or by one of the San
+Francisco mail boats. From Sydney the voyage occupies eight days, from
+Auckland five. The outfit required for a three or four months' stay is
+not a large one--light clothing can be bought almost as cheaply in Samoa
+as in Sydney, a couple of guns with plenty of ammunition (for cartridges
+are shockingly dear in the Islands), a large and varied assortment of
+deep-sea tackle, a rod for fresh-water or reef fishing, and a good
+waterproof and rugs for camping out, as the early mornings are sometimes
+very chilly. And there is one other thing that is worth while taking,
+even though it may cost from �30 to �50 or so in Sydney--a good
+secondhand boat, with two suits of sails. Thus provided the sportsman
+can sail all along the coasts of Savaii and Upolu, and be practically
+independent of the local storekeepers. To hire a boat is very expensive,
+and to travel in native craft is horribly uncomfortable, and risky as
+well. And such a boat can always be sold again for at least its cost.
+
+A stay of two or three days, or at most a week, in Apia is quite long
+enough, and the stranger will get all the information he requires about
+the outlying districts from the Consuls or any of the old white
+residents. Such provisions as are needed--tea, sugar, flour, biscuits,
+tinned or other meats, &c.--can be had at fairly cheap rates; but a
+large stock should be taken, for, besides the keep of the native crew
+of, say, four men, it must always be borne in mind that a white visitor
+is expected to return the hospitality he receives from the native chiefs
+by making a present, and the Samoans are particularly susceptible to the
+charms of tinned meats, sardines, salmon, and _falaoa_ (bread or
+biscuit). That such a return should be made is only just and natural,
+though I am sorry to say that very often it is not. Then, again, it is
+very easy to stow away in the trade box in the boat eight or ten pieces
+of good print, cut off in pieces of six fathoms (which is enough to make
+a woman's gown), about 30 lbs. of twist negrohead tobacco (twenty to
+thirty sticks to the pound), half a gross of lucifer matches, and such
+things as cotton, scissors, combs, &c., and powder, caps, and a bag of
+No. 3 shot for pigeon shooting. Now, this seems a lot of articles for a
+man to take on a short Samoan _malaga_ (journey), but it is not, and for
+the �50 which it may cost for such an outfit (exclusive of the boat and
+crew's wages) the traveller will see more of the people and their mode
+of life, be more hospitably received, and spend a pleasanter time than
+if he were cruising about in a 1,000-ton yacht. The wages or boatmen and
+native sailors in Samoa are usually $15.00 per month, but many will
+gladly go on a _malaga_ (the general acceptance of the word is a
+pleasure trip) for much less, for there is but little work, and much
+eating and drinking. But, as sailors, the Samoans are a wretched lot,
+and the local living Savage Islanders, as the natives of Niu� Island are
+called, are far better, especially if there is any wind or a beat to
+windward in a heavy sea. These Savage Island "boys" can always be
+obtained in Apia. They are good seamen and very willing to work; but
+they have to be fed entirely by their white employer, for the Samoans
+seldom make a present of food to a crew of Niu� boys, for whom they
+profess a contempt and designate _au pu�a_--_i.e._, pigs.
+
+The Samoan Group consists of five islands, trending from west by north
+to east by south. The two largest are Upolu and Savaii. Tutuila, and the
+Manua Group of three islands are too far to the windward to attempt in a
+small boat against the south-east trades. And it would take quite three
+months to visit the principal villages on the two large islands, staying
+a few days at each place.
+
+The best plan is to make to windward along the coast of Upolu after
+leaving Apia. A large boat cannot be taken all the way inside the reef,
+owing to the many coral patches which, at low tide, render this course
+impracticable. The first place of any importance is Saluafata, fifteen
+miles from Apia (I must mention that Apia is in the centre of Upolu, and
+on the north side), then Falifa|, an exquisitely pretty place, and
+then Fa|goloa Bay and village, eight miles further on. This is the
+deepest indentation in Samoa, except the famous Pa|go Pa|go Harbour
+on Tutuila, and the scenery is very beautiful. After leaving Fa|goloa,
+the open sea has to be taken, for there is now no barrier reef for ten
+miles, where it begins at Samusu village, to the towns of Aleipata and
+Lepa|, two of the best in the group, and inhabited by cleanly and
+hospitable people. This is the weather point of Upolu, and after leaving
+Lepa| the boat has a clear run of over sixty miles before the glorious
+trades to the lee end of the island--that is, unless a stay is made at
+the populous towns of Falealilli, Sa|fata, Lafa|ga, and Falelatai,
+on the southern coast. The scenery along this part of the island is
+enchanting, but sudden squalls at night-time are sometimes frequent,
+from December to March, and 'tis always advisable to run into a port at
+sunset.
+
+Two miles off the lee end of Upolu is the low-lying island of Manono,
+which is, however, enclosed in the Upolu barrier reef. It is only about
+three miles in circumference, exceedingly fertile, and is the most
+important place in the group, owing to the political influence wielded
+by the chiefly families who have always made it their home. A mile from
+Manono, and in the centre of the deep strait separating Upolu from
+Savaii, is a curiously picturesque spot, an island named Apolima.[17] It
+is an extinct crater, but has a narrow passage on the north side, and is
+inhabited by about fifty people, who are delighted to see any _papalagi_
+(foreigner) who is venturesome enough to make a landing there.
+
+Savaii is distant about ten miles from Upolu. Its coast is for the most
+part _itu papa_--i.e., iron bound--but there are five populous towns
+there--Palaulae, Salealua, Asaua, Matautu, and Safune. After making the
+round of Savaii, the boat has to make back to Manono, and then can
+proceed inside the reef all the way to Apia, making stoppages at the
+many minor villages which stud the shore at intervals of every few
+miles.
+
+These _malaga_ by boat along the coast or from one island to another are
+much in favour with many of the white residents of Samoa, who find their
+life in Apia very monotonous. European ladies frequently accompany their
+husbands, and sometimes quite a large party is made up. More than
+five-and-twenty years ago, when the writer was gaining his first
+experiences of Samoan life, it was his good fortune to be one of such a
+party, and a right merry time he had of it among the natives; for in
+those days, although there was party warfare occasionally, the group
+was free from the savage hatreds and dissensions--largely fomented by
+the interference and intrigues of unscrupulous traders and incapable
+officials--which for the past ten or twelve years have made it
+notorious.
+
+In travelling in Samoa one need not always rely upon native hospitality.
+Though most of the white traders at the outlying villages nowadays make
+nothing beyond a scanty living, they are as a rule very hospitable and
+pleased to see and entertain white visitors as well as their poor means
+will allow, and in nine cases out of ten would feel hurt if they were
+ignored and the native teacher's house visited first; for between the
+average trader and the native teacher there is always a natural and yet
+reasonable jealousy. And here let me say a word in praise of the Samoan
+teacher--in Samoa. Away from his native land, in charge of a mission
+station in another part of Polynesia or Melanesia, he is too often
+pompous and overbearing alike to his flock and to the white trader. Here
+he is far from the control and supervision of the white missionaries,
+who only visit him twice in the year, and consequently he thinks himself
+a man of vast importance. But in Samoa his superiors are prompt to curb
+any inclination he may evince to ride the high horse over his flock or
+interfere with any matter not strictly connected with his charge. So, in
+Samoa, the native teacher is generally a good fellow, the soul of
+hospitality, and anxious to entertain any chance white visitor; and
+although the Samoans are not bigoted ranters like the Tongans or
+Fijians, and the teachers have not anything like the undue and improper
+influence over the people possessed by the native ministers in Tonga or
+Fiji, to needlessly offend one would be resented by the villagers and
+make the visitor's stay anything but pleasant. As for the white
+missionaries in Samoa, all I need say of them is that they are
+gentlemen, and that the words "Mission House" are synonymous in most
+cases with warm welcome to the traveller.
+
+Travelling inland in Savaii or crossing Upolu from north to south, or
+_vice-vers�,_ is very delightful, though one misses much of the lovely
+scenery that unfolds itself in a panorama-like manner when sailing along
+the coast. One journey that can easily be accomplished in a day is that
+from Apia to Safata. Carriers are easily obtainable, and some splendid
+pigeon shooting can be had an hour or two after leaving Apia till within
+a few miles of Safata. Pigeons are about the only game to be had in
+Samoa, though the _manutagi_, or ring-dove, is very plentiful, but one
+hardly likes to shoot such dear little creatures. Occasionally one may
+get a wild duck or two and some fearful-looking wild fowls--the progeny
+of the domestic fowl. Wild pigs are not now plentiful in Upolu though
+they are in Savaii, but they are exceedingly difficult to shoot and the
+country they frequent is fearfully rough. In some of the streams there
+are some very good fish, running up to 2 lbs. or 3 lbs. They bite
+eagerly at the _ula_ or freshwater prawn, and are excellent eating; and
+yet, strange to say, very few of the white residents in the group even
+know of their existence. This applies also to deep-sea fishing; for
+although the deep water outside the reefs and the passages leading into
+the harbours teem with splendid fish, the residents of Apia are content
+to buy the wretched things brought to them by women who capture them in
+nets in the shallow water inside the reef. Once, during my stay on
+Manono, a young Manhiki half-caste and myself went out in our boat about
+a mile from the land, and in thirty fathoms of water caught in an hour
+three large-scaled fish of the groper species. These fish, though once
+familiar enough to the people of the island, are now never fished for,
+and our appearance with our prizes caused quite an excitement in the
+village, everyone thronging around us to look. And yet there are two or
+three varieties of groper--many of them weighing 50 lbs. or 60
+lbs.--which can be caught anywhere on the Samoan coast; but the Samoan
+of the present day has sadly degenerated, and, except bonito catching,
+deep-sea fishing is one of the lost arts. But at almost any place in the
+group, except Apia, great quantities of fish are caught inside the reefs
+by nets, and one may always be sure of getting a splendid mullet of some
+sort for either breakfast or supper.
+
+Let us suppose that a party of Europeans have arrived at a village, and
+are the guests of the chief and people generally. Food is at once
+brought to them, even before any visits of ceremony are paid, for the
+news of the coming of a party of travellers has doubtless been brought
+to the village the previous day by a messenger from the last
+stopping-place. The repast provided may be simple, but will be ample,
+baked pork most likely being the _pi�ce de r�sistance,_ with roast
+fowl, baked pigeons, breadfruit (if in season), and yams or taro, with a
+plentiful supply of young drinking-coconuts. (Should the host be the
+local teacher, some deplorable tea and a loaf of terrible bread are sure
+to be produced.) This preliminary meal finished, the formalities begin
+by a visit from the chief and his _tulafale,_ or "talking-man,"
+accompanied by the leading citizens. The talking-man then makes a
+speech, welcoming the guests, and is by no means sparing of "buttery"
+phrases which indicate the intense delight, &c., of the inhabitants of
+the village at having the honoured privilege of entertaining such noble
+and distinguished visitors, &c. A suitable reply is made by the guests
+(through an interpreter, if no one among them can speak Samoan), and
+then follows a ceremonious brewing and drinking of kava. This is a most
+important function in Samoa, and to the stranger unaccustomed to the
+manner of making the beverage, the ordeal of drinking it is an
+exceedingly trying one. It is prepared as follows: The dried kava root
+is cut up in thin slices and handed to a number of young women, who
+masticate it and then deposit it in a large wooden _tanoa_, or bowl.
+Water is then added in sufficient quantity till the _tanoa_ is
+half-filled with a thin yellowish-green liquid, which is carefully
+strained by a thick "swab" of the beaten bark of the _fau_-tree. This
+straining operation is performed only by a very experienced lady, and is
+watched in respectful silence. Then the drink is handed round in a
+polished bowl of coconut-shell. But for a full description of all the
+details of a kava-drinking, let me commend my readers to the best and
+most charming book ever written on South Sea life, "South Sea Bubbles,"
+by the late Earl of Pembroke and Dr. Kingsley. Nowadays, however, many
+Samoan households, out of deference to European tastes, have the kava
+root grated instead of being chewed.
+
+The kava-drinking over, all stiffness and formality disappears for the
+time, and the visitors are surrounded by the villagers, eager to learn
+the latest news from Apia, and from the world abroad. The discussion of
+political matters always has a strong attraction for Samoans, who are
+anxious to learn the state of affairs in Europe, and their knowledge and
+shrewdness is surprising. Should there be any white ladies present, the
+brown ones make much of them. The Samoans are a fine, handsome race, and
+the faces and figures of many of the young women are very attractive;
+but the practice of cutting off their long, flowing black hair, and
+allowing it to grow in a short, stiff "frizz" is all too common, and
+detracts very much from an otherwise handsome and graceful appearance,
+especially when the hair is coated with lime in order to change its
+colour to red. Many of the men, particularly those of chiefly rank, are
+of magnificent stature and proportions, and their walk and carriage are
+in consonance.
+
+An announcement that the visitors intend to go pigeon shooting is warmly
+applauded, and each white man is at once provided with a guide, for,
+unless he has had experience of the Samoan forest, he will return with
+an empty bag, as, however plentiful the birds may be, their habit of
+hiding in the branches of the lofty _tamanu_ and _masa'oi_-trees render
+them difficult of detection. The natives themselves are very good shots,
+and very rarely fail to bring down a bird, even when nothing more than a
+scarlet leg or a blue-grey feather is visible. The guns they use are
+very common, cheap German affairs, but are specially made for Samoa,
+being very small bored and long in the barrel. The best time is in the
+early morning and towards the cool of the evening, when the birds are
+feeding on _masa'oi_ and other berries; during the heat of the day they
+seldom leave their perches, though their deep crooning note may be heard
+everywhere. In the mountainous interiors of Upolu and Savaii there is
+but little undergrowth; the ground is carpeted with a thick layer of
+leaves, dry on the top, but rain and dew-soaked beneath, and simply to
+breathe the sweet, cool mountain air is delightful. At certain times of
+the year the birds are very fat, and I have very often seen them
+literally burst when striking the ground after being shot in high trees.
+Their flavour is delicious, especially if they are hung for a day. I may
+here remark that, in New Britain, precisely the same species of pigeon
+is very often quite uneatable through feeding upon Chili berries, which
+in that island grow in profusion. In shooting in a Samoan forest one has
+nothing to fear from venomous reptiles, for, although there are two or
+three kinds of snakes, they are rarely ever seen and quite harmless.
+Scorpions and centipedes--the latter often six inches in length--there
+are in plenty, but these detestable vermin are more common in European
+habitations than in the bush. At the same time, mosquitoes are a
+terrible annoyance anywhere in the vicinity of water, and delight in
+attacking the tender skin of the stranger. Then, again, beware of
+scratching any exposed part of the skin, for, unless it is quickly
+covered by plaister or otherwise attended to, an irritating sore, which
+may take months to heal, will often result.
+
+There are, during the visit of a travelling party to a Samoan town, no
+fixed times for meals. You are expected to eat much and often. During
+the day there will be continuous arrivals of people bringing baskets of
+provisions as presents, which are formally presented--with a speech. The
+speech has to be responded to, and the bringers of the presents treated
+politely, as long as they remain, and they remain until their
+curiosity--and avarice--is satisfied. A return present must be sent on
+the following day; for although Samoans designate every present of food
+or anything else made to a party of visitors as an "alofa"--_i.e.,_ a
+gift of love--this is but a hollow conventionalism, it being the
+time-honoured custom of the country to always give a _quid pro quo_ for
+whatever has been received. Yet it must not be imagined that they are a
+selfish people; if the recipients of an "alofa" of food are too poor to
+respond otherwise than by a profusion of thanks, the donors of the
+"alofa" are satisfied--it would be a disgrace for their village to be
+spoken of as having treated guests meanly.
+
+After evening service--conducted on week-days in each house by the head
+of the family--another meal is served. Then either lamps or a fire of
+coconut-shells is lit, and there is a great making of _sului_, or
+cigarettes of strong tobacco rolled in dry banana leaf, and there is
+much merry jostling and shoving among the young lads and girls for a
+seat on the matted floor, to hear the white people talk. A dance is sure
+to be suggested, and presently the _fale po-ula,_ or dance-house, is lit
+up in preparation, as the dancers, male and female, hurry away to adorn
+themselves. Much has been said about the impropriety of Samoa dancing by
+travellers who have only witnessed the degrading and indecent
+exhibitions, given on a large scale by the loafing class of natives who
+inhabit Apia and its immediate vicinity. The natives are an adaptive
+race, and suit their manners to their company, and there are always
+numbers of sponging men and _paumotu_ (beach-women) ready to pander to
+the tastes of low whites who are willing to witness a lewd dance. But in
+most villages, situated away from the contaminating influences of the
+principal port, a native _siva_, or dance, is well worth witnessing, and
+the accompanying singing is very melodious. It is, however, true, that
+on important occasions, such as the marriage of a great chief, &c., that
+the dancing, decorous enough in the earlier stages of the evening,
+degenerates under the influence of excitement into an exhibition that
+provokes sorrow and disgust. And yet, curiously enough, the dancers at
+these times are not low class, common people, but young men and women
+of high lineage, who, led by the _taupo_, or maid of the village, cast
+aside all restraint and modesty. In many of the dances the costumes are
+exceedingly pretty, the men wearing aprons made of the yellow and
+scarlet leaves of the _ti_ or dracoena plant, with head-dresses formed
+of pieces of iridescent pearl-shell, intermixed with silver coins and
+scarlet and amber beads, and the hair of both sexes is profusely adorned
+with the scarlet flowers of the hibiscus, while from their necks depend
+large strings of _sea-sea, masa'oi,_ and other brightly-coloured and
+sweet-smelling berries. Of late years the Tahitian fashion of wearing
+thick wreaths of orange or lemon blossoms has come into vogue.
+
+Before concluding these remarks upon Samoa, I must mention that the
+climate is very healthy for the greater part of the year; but in the
+rainy season, December to March, the heat is intense, and sickness is
+often prevalent, especially in Apia. Still fever, such as is met with in
+the New Hebrides and the Solomon Group, "the grave of the white man in
+the South Seas," is unknown, and one may sleep in the open air with
+impunity. Before setting out from Apia the services of a competent
+interpreter should be secured--a man who thoroughly understands the
+Samoan _customs_ as well as the language. Plenty of reliable half-castes
+can always be found, any one of whom would be glad to engage for a very
+moderate payment. Too often the pleasures of such a trip as I have
+described have been marred by the interpreter's lack of tact and
+knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of the various
+districts and villages. The mere fact of a man being able to speak the
+language fairly well is not the all in all; for the Samoans are a highly
+sensitive people, and the omission by the interpreter of a chief's
+titles, &c., when the guests are responding through him to an address of
+welcome, would be considered "shockingly bad form."
+
+But the reader must not imagine that the Samoan Group is the only one in
+the South Pacific where an enjoyable holiday may be spent. The French
+possession of the Society Islands, of which the pretty town Papeite, in
+the noble island of Tahiti, is the capital, rivals, if not exceeds,
+Samoa in the magnificence of its scenery, and the natives are a highly
+intelligent race of Malayo-Polynesians who, despite their being citizens
+of the French Republic, never forget that they were redeemed from
+savagery by Englishmen, and a _taata Peretane_ (Englishman) is an
+ever-welcome guest to them. The facilities for visiting the different
+islands of the Society Group are very good, for there is quite a fleet
+of native and European-owned vessels constantly cruising throughout the
+archipelago. To cross the island of Tahiti from its south-east to its
+north-west point is one of the most delightful trips imaginable. Then
+again, the Hervey or Cook's Group, which consist of the fertile islands
+of Mangaia, Rarotonga, Atui, Aitutaki, and Mauki, are well worth
+visiting. The people speak a language similar to that of Tahiti, and
+they are a fine, hospitable race, albeit a little over-civilised. Both
+of these groups can be reached from Auckland by sailing vessels, but
+not direct from Sydney. As for the lonely islands of the North Pacific,
+they are too far afield for any one to visit but the trader or the
+traveller to whom time is nothing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+1: Literally, "clear crony."
+
+2: Port.
+
+3: Happiness.
+
+4: A libertine, profligate.
+
+5: My love to you, P�k�a; are you well?
+
+6: White foreigners.
+
+7: Frank.
+
+8: Small-pox.
+
+9: An accordion.
+
+10: Idler, gad about--a Samoan expression.
+
+11: German.
+
+12: The Tokelau and Ellice Islanders are much amused at the white man's
+    method of hauling in a heavy fish hand _over_ hand. This to them is
+    "_faka fafine_"--i.e., like a woman.
+
+13: Cayse.
+
+14: NOTE BY THE PUBLISHER.--This incident is related by the author in
+    "By Reef and Palm" under the title of "The Rangers of the Tia Kau."
+
+15: PUBLISHER'S NOTE.--This Alan Strickland is the "Allan" who has so
+    frequently figured in the author's other tales of South Sea life,
+    notably in the works entitled "By Reef and Palm" and "The Ebbing of
+    the Tide."
+
+16: Councillors.
+
+17: _Apo! lima_! "Be quick with your hand!" The passage is narrow and
+    dangerous, even for canoes, and the steersman, as he watches the
+    rolling surf, calls out _Apo, lau lima_! to his crew--an expression
+    synonymous to our nautical, "Pull like the devil!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore,
+and Other Stories, by Louis Becke
+
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="content-type"
+    content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
+
+    <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of By Rock &amp; Pool On An
+    Austral Shore, by Louis Becke.</title>
+
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and
+Other Stories, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2004 [EBook #12798]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROCK AND POOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David McLachlan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h1>Note to Readers</h1>
+
+    <p>This file is encoded using the UTF-8 character set.</p>
+
+    <p>The text in this file contains a number of characters not
+    contained in the standard ASCII character set. To enable the
+    display of these characters the UTF-8 character set must be
+    used by the reader.</p>
+
+    <p>A number of character sets supporting UTF-8 are available
+    from the Unicode web site at
+    <a href="http://www.unicode.org/" target="_new">
+    www.unicode.org</a>
+
+    .</p>
+
+    <p>If you do not have access to
+    <a href="http://www.unicode.org/" target="_new">
+    www.unicode.org</a>
+
+    you should obtain the ASCII encoded version of this file from
+    Project Gutenberg which uses an alternate representation system
+    to present the UTF-8 characters.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 1 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page_ii" name="page_ii">[pg ii]</a>
+    </span>
+
+<!-- Page 2 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page_iii" name="page_iii">[pg iii]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <h1>
+    <i>By</i>
+
+    ROCK &amp; POOL</h1>
+
+    <h1>On An Austral Shore</h1>
+
+    <h2>
+    <i>By</i>
+
+    LOUIS BECKE</h2>
+
+    <h3>AUTHOR OF "PACIFIC TALES," "BY REEF AND PALM," ETC.,
+    ETC.</h3>
+
+    <center>New Amsterdam Book Company
+    <br />
+
+    156 FIFTH AVENUE: NEW YORK CITY: MCMI</center>
+
+<!-- Page 3 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page_iv" name="page_iv">[pg iv]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <a name='CONTENTS'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Page 4 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page__v" name="page__v">[pg v]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page001">BY ROCK AND POOL</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page020">SOLEPA</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page045">THE FISHER FOLK OF NUKUFETAU</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page066">MRS. MACLAGGAN'S BILLY</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page078">AN ISLAND MEMORY</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page107">A HUNDRED FATHOMS DEEP</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page118">ON A TIDAL RIVER</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page132">DENISON GETS ANOTHER SHIP</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page141">JACK SHARK'S PILOT</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page148">THE "PALU" OF THE EQUATORIAL PACIFIC</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page159">THE WILY "GOANNER"</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page165">THE T&#258;NIFA OF SAMOA</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page174">ON BOARD THE
+      <i>TUCOPIA</i>
+      </a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page218">THE MAN IN THE BUFFALO HIDE</a>
+    </p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>
+      <a href="#page231">A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS&#8212;HINTS TO
+      INTENDING TRAVELLERS</a>
+    </p>
+
+<!-- Page 5 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page_vi" name="page_vi">[pg vi]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 6 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page001" name="page001">[pg 1]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='By_Rock_and_Pool_on_an_Austral_Shore'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>The quaint, old-fashioned little town faces eastward to the
+    blue Pacific, whose billows, when the wind blows from any point
+    between north and east, come tumbling in across the shallow bar
+    in ceaseless lines of foaming white, to meet, when the tide is
+    on the ebb, the swift current of a tidal river as broad as the
+    Thames at Westminster Bridge. On the south side of the bar,
+    from the sleepy town itself to the pilot station on the Signal
+    Hill, there rises a series of smooth grassy bluffs, whose
+    seaward bases touch the fringe of many small beaches, or start
+    sheer upward from the water when the tide is high, and the
+    noisy swish and swirl of the eager river current has
+    ceased.</p>
+
+    <p>As you stand on the Signal Hill, and look along the coast,
+    you see a long, long monotonous line of beach, trending
+    northward ten miles from end to end, forming a great curve from
+    the sandspit on the north side of the treacherous bar to the
+    blue loom of a headland in shape like the figure of a couchant
+    lion. Back from the shore-line, a narrow littoral of dense
+    scrub, impervious to the rays of the sun, and unbroken in its
+<!-- Page 7 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page002" name="page002">[pg 2]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    solitude except by the cries of birds, or the heavy footfall of
+    wild cattle upon the thick carpet of fallen leaves; and then,
+    far to the west, the dimmed, shadowy outline of the main
+    coastal range.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>It is a keen, frosty morning in June&#8212;the midwinter of
+    Australia&#8212;and as the red sun bursts through the sea-rim,
+    a gentle land breeze creeps softly down from the mountain
+    forest of gums and iron-barks, and blows away the mists that,
+    all through a night of cloudless calm, have laid heavily upon
+    the surface of the sleeping ocean. One by one the doors of the
+    five little white-painted, weather-boarded houses which form
+    the quarters of the pilot-boat's crew open, and five brown,
+    hairy-faced men, each smoking a pipe, issue forth, and, hands
+    in pockets, scan the surface of the sea from north to south,
+    for perchance a schooner, trying to make the port, may have
+    been carried along by the current from the southward, and is
+    within signalling distance to tell her whether the bar is
+    passable or not. For the bar of the Port is as changeable in
+    its moods as the heart of a giddy maid to her
+    lovers&#8212;to-day it may invite you to come in and take
+    possession of its placid waters in the harbour beyond;
+    to-morrow it may roar and snarl with boiling surf and savage,
+    eddying currents, and whirlpools slapping fiercely against the
+    grim, black rocks of the southern shore.</p>
+
+    <p>Look at the five men as they stand or saunter about on the
+    smooth, frosty grass. They are sailormen&#8212;
+<!-- Page 8 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page003" name="page003">[pg 3]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    one and all&#8212;as you can see by their walk and hear by
+    their talk; rough, ready, and sturdy, though not so sturdy nor
+    so square-built as your solid men of brave old Deal; but a long
+    way better in appearance and character than the sponging,
+    tip-seeking, loafing fraternity of slouching, lazy robbers who
+    on the parades of Brighton, Hastings, and Eastbourne, and other
+    fashionable seaside resorts in this country, lean against
+    lamp-posts with "Licensed Boatman" writ on their hat-bands, and
+    call themselves fishermen, though they seldom handle a herring
+    or cod that does not come from a fishmonger's shop. These
+    Australians of British blood are leaner in face, leaner in limb
+    than the Kentish men, and drink whiskey instead of coffee or
+    tea at early morn. But see them at work in the face of danger
+    and death on that bar, when the surf is leaping high and a
+    schooner lies broadside on and helpless to the sweeping
+    rollers, and you will say that a more undaunted crew never
+    gripped an oar to rescue a fellow-sailorman from the hungry
+    sea.</p>
+
+    <p>One of them, a grey-haired, deeply-bronzed man of sixty,
+    with his neck and hands tatooed in strange markings, imprinted
+    thereon by the hands of the wild natives of Tucopia, in the
+    South Seas, with whom he has lived forty years before as one of
+    themselves, is mine own particular friend and crony, for his
+    two sons have been playmates with my brothers and myself, who
+    were all born in this quaint old-time seaport of the first
+    colony in Australia; this forgotten remnant of the dread days
+    of the awful convict
+<!-- Page 9 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page004" name="page004">[pg 4]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    system, when the clank of horrible gyves sounded on the now
+    deserted and grass-grown streets, and the swish of the hateful
+    and ever active "cat" was heard within the walls of the huge
+    red-brick prison on the bluff facing the sea. Oh, the old, old
+    memories of those hideous times! How little they wounded or
+    troubled our boyish minds, as we, bent on some fishing or
+    hunting venture along the coast, walked along a road which had
+    been first soddened by tears and then dried by the panting,
+    anguished breathings of beings fashioned in the image of their
+    Creator, as they toiled and died under the brutal hands of
+    their savage task-masters&#8212;the civilian officials of that
+    cruel "System" which, by the irony of fate, the far-seeing,
+    gentle, and tender-hearted Arthur Phillip, the founder of
+    Australia, was first appointed to administer.</p>
+
+    <p>But away with such memories for the moment. Over the lee
+    side with them into the Sea of the Past, together with the
+    clank of the fetters and the hum of the cat and the merciless
+    laws of the time; sink them all together with the names of the
+    military rum-selling traducers of the good Phillip, and of
+    ill-tempered, passionate sailor Bligh of the
+    <i>Bounty</i>
+
+    &#8212;honest, brave, irascible, vindictive; destroyer of his
+    ship's company on that fateful adventure to Tahiti, hero of the
+    most famous boat-voyage the world has ever known; sea-bully and
+    petty "hazer" of hapless Fletcher Christian and his comrades,
+    gallant officer in battle and thanked by Nelson at Copenhagen;
+    conscientious governor of a starveling colony gasping under the
+    hands of unscrupulous military money-makers,
+<!-- Page 10 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page005" name="page005">[pg 5]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    William Bligh deserves to be remembered by all men of English
+    blood who are proud of the annals of the most glorious navy in
+    the world.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>But ere we descend to the beach to wander by rock and pool
+    in this glowing Australian sun, the warm, loving rays of which
+    are fast drying the frost-coated grass, let us look at these
+    square, old-time monuments to the dead, placed on the Barrack
+    Hill, and overlooking the sea. There are four in all, but
+    around them are many low, sunken headstones of lichen-covered
+    slabs, the inscriptions on which, like many of those on the
+    stones in the cemetery by the reedy creek, have long since
+    vanished.</p>
+
+    <p>There, indeed, if you care to brave the snake-haunted place
+    you will discover a word, or the part of a
+    word&#8212;"Talav&#8212;&#8212;," "Torre&#8212;&#8212;Vedras,"
+    "Vimiera," or "Badaj&#8212;&#8212;," or "Fuentes de
+    On&#8212;&#8212;," and you know that underneath lies the dust
+    of men who served their country well when the Iron Duke was
+    rescuing Europe from the grip of the bloodstained Corsican. On
+    one, which for seventy years has faced the rising sun and the
+    salty breath of the ocean breeze, there remains but the one
+    glorious word, "Aboukir!" every indented letter thickly filled
+    with grey moss and lichen, though the name of he who fought
+    there has disappeared, and being but that of some humble
+    seaman, is unrecorded and unknown in the annals of his country.
+    How strange it seems! but yet how fitting that this one word
+    alone should be
+<!-- Page 11 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page006" name="page006">[pg 6]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    preserved by loving Nature from the decaying touch of Time.
+    Perhaps the very hand of the convict mason who held the chisel
+    to the stone struck deeper as he carved the letters of the name
+    of the glorious victory.</p>
+
+    <p>But let us away from here; for in the hot summer months amid
+    these neglected and decaying memorials of the dead, creeping
+    and crawling in and out of the crumbling masonry of the tombs,
+    gliding among the long, reedy grass, or lying basking in the
+    sun upon the fallen headstones, are deadly black and brown
+    snakes. They have made this old, time-forgotten cemetery their
+    own favourite haunting place; for the waters of the creek are
+    near, and on its margin they find their prey. Once, so the
+    shaky old wharfinger will tell you, a naval lieutenant, who had
+    been badly wounded in the first Maori war, died in the
+    commandant's house. He was buried here on the bank of the
+    creek, and one day his young wife who had come from England to
+    nurse him and found him dead, sat down on his grave and went to
+    sleep. When she awoke, a great black snake was lying on her
+    knees. She died that day from the shock.</p>
+
+    <p>The largest of these four monuments on the bluff stands
+    nearest to the sea, and the inscription on the heavy flat slab
+    of sandstone which covers it is fairly legible:&#8212;</p>
+
+    <center>Sacred to the Memory of
+    <br />
+
+<!-- Page 12 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page007" name="page007">[pg 7]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    JAMES VAUGHAN,
+    <br />
+
+    Who was a Private in Captain
+    <br />
+
+    Fraser Allan's Company
+    <br />
+
+    of the 40th Regiment,
+    <br />
+
+    Who died on the 24th November, 1823,
+    <br />
+
+    of a Gunshot Wound Received
+    <br />
+
+    on the 20th Day of the Month,
+    <br />
+
+    when in Pursuit of a
+    <br />
+
+    Runaway Convict.
+    <br />
+
+    Aged 25 years.</center>
+
+    <p>The others record the names of the "infant son and daughters
+    of Mr. G. Smith, Commissariat Storekeeper," and of "Edward
+    Marvin, who died 4th July, 1821, aged 21 years."</p>
+
+    <p>Many other sunken headstones denote the last resting-places
+    of soldiers and sailors, and civilian officials, who died
+    between 1821 and 1830, when the little port was a thriving
+    place, and when, as the old gossips will tell you, it made a
+    "rare show, when the Governor came here, and Major
+    Innes&#8212;him as brought that cussed lantana plant from the
+    Peninsula&#8212;sent ninety mounted men to escort him to Lake
+    Innes."</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>The tide is low, and the flat
+    <i>congewoi</i>
+
+    -covered ledges of reef on the southern side of the bar lie
+    bare and exposed to the sun. Here and there in the crystal
+    pools among the rocks, fish have been left by the tide,
+<!-- Page 13 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page008" name="page008">[pg 8]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and as you step over the
+    <i>congewoi</i>
+
+    , whose teats spurt out jets of water to the pressure of your
+    foot, large silvery bream and gaily-hued parrot-fish rush off
+    and hide themselves from view. But tear off a piece of
+    <i>congewoi,</i>
+
+    open it, and throw the sanguinary-coloured delicacy into the
+    water, and presently you will see the parrot-fish dart out
+    eagerly, and begin to tear it asunder with their long,
+    irregular, and needle-like teeth, whilst the more cautious and
+    lordly bream, with wary eye and gentle, undulating tail, watch
+    from underneath a ledge for a favourable moment to dash out and
+    secure a morsel.</p>
+
+    <p>In some of the wider and shallower ponds are countless
+    thousands of small mullet, each about three or four inches in
+    length, and swimming closely together in separated but compact
+    battalions. Some, as the sound of a human footstep warns them
+    of danger, rush for safety among the submerged clefts and
+    crevices of their temporary retreat, only to be mercilessly and
+    fatally enveloped by the snaky, viscous tentacles of the
+    ever-lurking octopus, for every hole and pool among the rocks
+    contains one or more of these hideously repulsive
+    creatures.</p>
+
+    <p>Sometimes you will see one crawling over the
+    <i>congewoi</i>
+
+    , changing from one pool to another in search of prey; its
+    greeny-grey eyes regard you with defiant malevolence. Strike it
+    heavily with a stick, or thrust it through with a spear, and in
+    an instant its colour, which a moment before was either a dark
+    mottled brown or a mingled reddish-black, changes to a ghastly,
+    horrible, marbled grey; the horrid tentacles
+<!-- Page 14 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page009" name="page009">[pg 9]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    writhe and cling to the weapon, or spread out and adhere to the
+    surrounding points of rock, a black, inky fluid is ejected from
+    the soft, pulpy, and slimy body; and then, after raining blow
+    after blow upon it, it lies unable to crawl away, but still
+    twisting and turning, and showing its red and white
+    suckers&#8212;a thing of horror indeed, the embodiment of all
+    that is hateful, wicked, and malignant in nature.</p>
+
+    <p>Some idea of the numbers of these crafty and savage denizens
+    of the limpid pools may be obtained by dropping a baited
+    fishing line in one of the deeper spots. First you will see
+    one, and then another, thin end of a tentacle come waveringly
+    out from underneath a ledge of rock, and point towards the
+    bait, then the rest of the ugly creature follows, and gathering
+    itself together, darts upon the hook, for the possession of
+    which half a dozen more of its fellows are already advancing,
+    either swimming or by drawing themselves over the sandy bottom
+    of the pool. Deep buried in the sand itself is another, a brute
+    which may weigh ten or fifteen pounds, and which would take all
+    the strength of a strong man to overcome were its loathsome
+    tentacles clasped round his limbs in their horrid embrace. Only
+    part of the head and the half-closed, tigerish eyes are
+    visible, and even these portions are coated over with fine sand
+    so as to render them almost undistinguishable from the bed in
+    which it lies awaiting for some careless crab or fish to come
+    within striking distance. How us boys delighted to destroy
+    these big fellows when we came across one thus hidden in the
+    sand or
+    <i>d&#233;bris</i>
+
+    on the bottom! A
+<!-- Page 15 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page010" name="page010">[pg 10]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    quick thrust of the spear through the tough, elongated head, a
+    vision of whirling, outspread, red and black snaky tentacles,
+    and then the thing is dragged out by main strength and dashed
+    down upon the rocks, to be struck with waddies or stones until
+    the spear can be withdrawn. Everything, it is said, has its use
+    in this world, and the octopus is eminently useful to the
+    Australian line fisherman, for the bream, trevally, flathead,
+    jew-fish, and the noble schnapper dearly love its tough, white
+    flesh, especially after the creature has been held over a flame
+    for a few minutes, so that the mottled skin may be peeled
+    off.</p>
+
+    <p>But treacherous and murderous Thug of the Sea as he is, the
+    octopus has one dreaded foe before whom he flees in terror, and
+    compresses his body into the narrowest and most inaccessible
+    cleft or endeavours to bury himself in the loose, soft
+    sand&#8212;and that foe is the orange-coloured or sage-green
+    rock eel. Never do you see one of these eels in the open water;
+    they lie deep under the stones or twine their lithe, slippery
+    bodies among the waving kelp or seaweed. Always hungry,
+    savage-eyed, and vicious, they know no fear of any living
+    thing, and seizing an octopus and biting off tentacle after
+    tentacle with their closely-set, needle-like teeth and
+    swallowing it whole is a matter of no more moment to them than
+    the bolting of a tender young mullet or bream. In vain does the
+    Sea Thug endeavour to enwrap himself round and round the body
+    of one of these sinuous, scaleless sea-snakes and fasten on to
+    it with his terrible cupping apparatus of suckers&#8212;the eel
+    slips in and out and "wolfs" and worries his enemy
+<!-- Page 16 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page011" name="page011">[pg 11]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    without the slightest harm to itself. Some of them are
+    large&#8212;especially the orange-coloured variety&#8212;three
+    or four feet in length, and often one will raise his snaky head
+    apparently out of solid rock and regard you steadily for a
+    moment. Then he disappears. You advance cautiously to the spot
+    and find a hole no larger than the circumference of an
+    afternoon tea cup, communicating with the water beneath. Lower
+    a baited hook with a strong wire snooding, and "Yellowskin"
+    will open wide his jaws and swallow it without your feeling the
+    slightest movement of the line. But you must be quick and
+    strong of hand then, or you will never drag him forth, for
+    slippery as he is he can coil his length around a projecting
+    bit of rock and defy you for perhaps five or ten minutes; and
+    then when you do succeed in tearing him away and pull him out
+    with the hook buried deep in his loose, pendulous, wrinkled and
+    corduroyed throat, he instantly resolves himself into a
+    quivering Gordian knot, winding the line in and about his coils
+    and knotting it into such knots that can never be
+    unravelled.</p>
+
+    <p>Here and there you will see lying buried deep in the growing
+    coral, or covered with black masses of
+    <i>congewoi</i>
+
+    such things as iron and copper bolts, or heavy pieces of
+    squared timber, the relics of the many wrecks that have
+    occurred on the bar&#8212;some recent, some in years long gone
+    by. Out there, lying wedged in between the weed and
+    kelp-covered boulders, only visible at low water, are two of
+    the guns of the ill-fated
+    <i>Wanderer</i>
+
+    , a ship, like her owner, famous in the history
+<!-- Page 17 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page012" name="page012">[pg 12]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of the colony. She was the property of a Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a
+    man of flocks and herds and wealth, who founded a town and a
+    great whaling station on the shores of Twofold Bay, where he
+    employed some hundreds of men, bond and free. He was of an
+    adventurous and restless disposition, and after making several
+    voyages to the South Seas, was cruelly cut off and murdered by
+    the cannibal natives of Guadalcanar in the Solomon Islands, in
+    the "fifties." The captain, after beating off the savages, who,
+    having killed poor Boyd on shore, made a determined attempt to
+    capture the ship, set sail for Australia, and in endeavouring
+    to cross in over the bar went ashore and became a total wreck.
+    Here is a description written by Judge McFarland of the
+    <i>Wanderer</i>
+
+    as she was in those days when Boyd dreamed a dream of founding
+    a Republic in the South Sea Islands with his wild crew of
+    Polynesians and a few white fellow adventurers:&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"She was of 240 tons burthen; very fleet, and had a flush
+    deck; and her cabins were fitted up with every possible
+    attention to convenience, and with great elegance; and had she
+    been intended as a war craft, she could scarcely have been more
+    powerfully armed, for she carried four brass
+    deck-guns&#8212;two six-pounders and two
+    four-pounders&#8212;mounted on carriages resembling dolphins,
+    four two-pounder rail guns&#8212;two on each side&#8212;and one
+    brass twelve-pounder traversing gun (which had seen service at
+    Waterloo)&#8212;in all thirteen serviceable guns. Besides
+    these, there were two small, highly-ornamented guns used for
+    firing signals, which were said to have been obtained from the
+<!-- Page 18 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page013" name="page013">[pg 13]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    wreck of the
+    <i>Royal George</i>
+
+    at Spithead. There were also provided ample stores of round
+    shot and grape for the guns, and a due proportion of small
+    arms, boarding pikes, tomahawks, &amp;c."</p>
+
+    <p>Half a mile further on, and we are under the Signal Hill,
+    and standing on one side of a wide, flat rock, through which a
+    boat passage has been cut by convict hands, when first the
+    white tents of the soldiers were seen on the Barrack Hill. And
+    here, at this same spot, more than a hundred years ago, and
+    thirty before the sound of the axe was first heard amid the
+    forest or tallow-woods and red gum, there once landed a strange
+    party of sea-worn, haggard-faced beings&#8212;six men, one
+    woman, and two infant children. They were the unfortunate
+    Bryant party&#8212;whose wonderful and daring voyage from
+    Sydney to Timor in a wretched, ill-equipped boat, ranks second
+    only to that of Bligh himself. For Will Bryant, an ex-smuggler
+    who was leader, had heard of Bligh's voyage in the boat
+    belonging to the
+    <i>Bounty</i>
+
+    ; and fired with the desire to escape with his wife and
+    children from the famine-stricken community on the shores of
+    Port Jackson, he and his companions in servitude stole a small
+    fishing-boat and boldly put to sea to face a journey of more
+    that three thousand miles over an unknown and dangerous ocean.
+    A few weeks after leaving Sydney they had sighted this little
+    nook when seeking refuge from a fierce north-easterly gale, and
+    here they remained for many days, so that the woman and
+    children might gain strength and the seams of the leaking boat
+    be payed with tallow&#8212;their only
+<!-- Page 19 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page014" name="page014">[pg 14]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    substitute for oakum. Then onward they sailed or rowed, for
+    long, long weary weeks, landing here and there on the coast to
+    seek for water and shell-fish, harried and chased by cannibal
+    savages, suffering all the agonies that could be suffered on
+    such a wild venture, until they reached Timor, only by a
+    strange and unhappy fate to fall into the hands of the brutal
+    and infamous Edwards of the
+    <i>Pandora</i>
+
+    frigate, who with his wrecked ship's company, and the surviving
+    and manacled mutineers of the
+    <i>Bounty</i>
+
+    , who had surrendered to him, soon afterwards appeared at the
+    Dutch port. Bryant, the daring leader, was so fortunate as to
+    die of fever, and so escaped the fate in store for his
+    comrades. 'Tis a strange story indeed.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>At the end of the point of brown, rugged rocks which form a
+    natural breakwater to this tiny boat harbour, the water is
+    deep, showing a pale transparent green at their base, and deep
+    inpenetrable blue ten fathoms beyond. To-day, because it is
+    mid-winter, and the wind blows from the west, the sea is
+    clearer than ever, and far down below will be discerned lazily
+    swimming to and fro great reddish-brown or bright blue groper,
+    watching the dripping sides of the rock in hope that some of
+    the active, gaily-hued crabs which scurry downwards as you
+    approach may fall in&#8212;for the blue groper is a
+    <i>gourmet</i>
+
+    , disdaining to eat of his own tribe, and caring only for crabs
+    or the larger and more luscious crayfish. Stand here when the
+    tide is high and the surf is sweeping in creamy sheets over
+<!-- Page 20 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page015" name="page015">[pg 15]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the lower ledges of rocks; and as the water pours off
+    torrent-like from the surface and leaves them bare, you may oft
+    behold a huge fish&#8212;aye, or two or three&#8212;lying
+    kicking on its side with a young crayfish in its thick, fleshy
+    jaws, calmly waiting for the next sea to set him afloat again.
+    Brave fellows are these gropers&#8212;forty, fifty, up to
+    seventy pounds sometimes, and dangerous fish to hook in such a
+    place as this, where a false step may send a man headlong into
+    the surf below with his line tangled round his feet or arms.
+    But on such a morning as this one might fall overboard and come
+    to no harm, for the sea is smooth, and the kelp sways but
+    gently to the soft rise and fall of the water, and seldom in
+    these cold days of June does Jack Shark cruise in under the lee
+    of the rocks. It is in November, hot, sweltering November, when
+    the clinking sand of the shining beach is burning to the booted
+    foot, and the countless myriads of terrified sea salmon come
+    swarming in over the bar on their way to spawn in the river
+    beyond, that he and his fellows and the bony-snouted saw-fish
+    rush to and fro in the shallow waters, driving their prey
+    before them, and gorging as they drive, till the clear waters
+    of the bar are turned into a bloodied froth. At such a time as
+    this it might be bad to fall overboard, though some of the
+    local youths give but little more heed to the tigers of the sea
+    than they do to the accompanying drove of harmless porpoises,
+    which join in the onslaught on the hapless salmon.</p>
+
+    <p>A mile eastward from the shore there rises stark and clear a
+    great dome-shaped rock, the haunt and resting-
+<!-- Page 21 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page016" name="page016">[pg 16]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    place of thousands of snow-white gulls and brown-plumaged
+    boobies. The breeding-place of the former is within
+    rifle-shot&#8212;over there on that long stretch of banked-up
+    sand on the north side of the bar, where, amid the shelter of
+    the coarse, tufted grass the delicate, graceful creatures will
+    sit three months hence on their fragile white and
+    purple-splashed eggs. The boobies are but visitors, for their
+    breeding-places are on the bleak, savage islands far to the
+    south, amid the snows and storms of black Antarctic seas. But
+    here they dwell together, in unison with the gulls, and were
+    the wind not westerly you could hear their shrill cries and
+    hoarse croaking as they wheel and eddy and circle above the
+    lonely rock, on the highest pinnacle of which a great
+    fish-eagle, with neck thrown back upon his shoulders and eyes
+    fixed eastward to the sun, stands oblivious of their clamour,
+    as creatures beneath his notice.</p>
+
+    <p>Once round the southern side of the Signal Hill the noise of
+    the bar is lost. Between the hill and the next point&#8212;a
+    wild, stern-looking precipice of black-trap rock&#8212;there
+    lies a half a mile or more of shingly strand, just such as you
+    would see at Pevensey Bay or Deal, but backed up at high-water
+    mark with piles of drift timber&#8212;great dead trees that
+    have floated from the far northern rivers, their mighty
+    branches and netted roots bleached white by the sun and wind of
+    many years, and smelling sweet of the salty sea air. Mingled
+    with the lighter bits of driftwood and heaps of seaweed are the
+    shells of hundreds of crayfish&#8212;some of the largest are
+    newly cast up by the sea, and
+<!-- Page 22 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page017" name="page017">[pg 17]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the carapace is yellow and blue; others are burnt red by
+    exposure to the sun; while almost at every step you crush into
+    the thin backs and armoured tails of young ones about a foot in
+    length, the flesh of which, by some mysterious process of
+    nature, has vanished, leaving the skin, muscles, and beautiful
+    fan-like tail just as fresh as if the crustaceans were alive.
+    Just here, out among those kelp-covered rocks, you may, on a
+    moonlight night, catch as many crayfish as you wish&#8212;three
+    of them will be as much as any one would care to carry a mile,
+    for a large, full-grown "lobster," as they are called locally,
+    will weigh a good ten pounds.</p>
+
+    <p>Once round the precipice we come to a new phase of coastal
+    scenery. From the high land above us green scrub-covered spur
+    after spur shoots downward to the shore, enclosing numerous
+    little beaches of coarse sand and many coloured spiral
+    shells&#8212;"Reddies" we boys called them&#8212;with here and
+    there a rare and beautiful cowrie of banded jet black and
+    pearly white. The sea-wall of rock has here but few pools,
+    being split up into long, deep, and narrow chasms, into which
+    the gentle ocean swell comes with strange gurglings and
+    hissings, and groan-like sounds, and tiny jets of spray spout
+    up from hundreds of air-holes through the hollow crust of rock.
+    Here for the first time since the town was left, are heard the
+    cries of land birds; for in the wild apple and rugged
+    honeysuckle trees which grow on the rich, red soil of the spurs
+    they are there in plenty&#8212;crocketts, king parrots,
+    leatherheads, "butcher" and "bell" birds, and the beautiful
+    bronze-wing pigeon&#8212;while deep within the
+<!-- Page 23 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page018" name="page018">[pg 18]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    silent gullies you constantly hear the little black scrub
+    wallabies leaping through the undergrowth and fallen leaves, to
+    hide in still darker forest recesses above.</p>
+
+    <p>There are snakes here, too. Everywhere their sinuous tracks
+    are visible on the sand, criss-crossing with the more defined
+    scratchy markings of those of iguanas. The latter we know come
+    down to carry off any dead fish cast ashore by the waves, or to
+    seize any live ones which may be imprisoned in a shallow pool;
+    but what brings the deadly brown and black snakes down to the
+    edge of
+    <i>salt</i>
+
+    water at night time?</p>
+
+    <p>Point after point, tiny bay after bay, and then we come to a
+    wider expanse of clear, stoneless beach, at the farther end of
+    which a huge boulder of jagged, yellow rock, covered on the
+    summit with a thick mantle of a pale green, fleshly-leaved
+    creeper, bearing a pink flower. It stands in a deep pool about
+    a hundred yards in circumference, and as like as not we shall
+    find the surface of the water covered by thousands of
+    green-backed, red-billed garfish and silvery mullet, whose very
+    numbers prevent them from escaping. Scores of them leap out
+    upon the sand, and lie there with panting gill and flapping
+    tail. It is a great place for us boys, for here at low tides in
+    the winter we strip off, and with naked hands catch the mullet
+    and gars and silvery-sided trumpeters, and throw them out on
+    the beach, to be grilled later on over a fire of glowing
+    honeysuckle cobs, and eaten without salt. What boy does care
+    about such a thing as salt at such times, when his eye is
+    bright and his skin glows with the flush of health, and the
+    soft murmuring of the sea
+<!-- Page 24 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page019" name="page019">[pg 19]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    is mingling in his ears with the thrilling call of the birds,
+    and the rustling hum of the bush; and the yellow sun shines
+    down from a glorious sky of cloudless blue, and dries the sand
+    upon his naked feet; and the very joy of being alive, and away
+    from school, is happiness enough in itself!</p>
+
+    <p>For here, by rock and pool on this lonely Austral beach, it
+    is good and sweet for man or boy to be, and, if but in utter
+    idleness, to watch and listen&#8212;and think.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 25 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page020" name="page020">[pg 20]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='Solepa'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>Solepa</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>The last strokes of the bell for evening service had scarce
+    died away when I heard a footstep on the pebbly path, and old
+    P&#226;k&#237;a, staff in hand and pipe dangling from his
+    pendulous ear-lobe, walked quietly up the steps and sat down
+    cross-legged on the verandah. All my own people had gone to
+    church and the house was very quiet.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good evening, P&#226;k&#237;a," I said in English, "how are
+    you, old man?"</p>
+
+    <p>A smile lit up the brown, old, wrinkled face as he heard my
+    voice&#8212;for I was lying down in the sitting-room, smoking
+    my after-supper pipe&#8212;as he answered in the island dialect
+    that he was well, but that his house was in darkness and he,
+    being lonely, had come over to sit with me awhile.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is well, P&#226;k&#237;a, for I too am lonely, and who
+    so good as thee to talk with when the mind is heavy and the
+    days are long, and no sail cometh up from the sea-rim? Come,
+    sit here within the doorway, for the night wind is chill; and
+    fill thy pipe."</p>
+
+    <p>He came inside as I rose and turned up the lamp so that its
+    light shone full on his bald, bronzed head
+<!-- Page 26 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page021" name="page021">[pg 21]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and deeply tatooed arms and shoulders. Laying down his polished
+    staff of
+    <i>temana</i>
+
+    wood, he came over to me, placed his hand on my arm, patted it
+    gently, and then his kindly old eyes sought mine.</p>
+
+    <p>"Be not dull of heart,
+    <i>taka taina</i>
+
+    .
+    <a href="#footnote_1" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[1]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    A ship will soon come&#8212;it may be to-morrow; it must be
+    soon; for twice have I heard the cocks crow at midnight since I
+    was last here, three days ago. And when the cocks crow at
+    night-time a ship is near."</p>
+
+    <p>"May it be so, P&#226;k&#237;a, for I am weary of waiting.
+    Ten months have come and gone since I first put foot on this
+    land of Nukufetau, and a ship was to have come here in
+    four."</p>
+
+    <p>He filled his pipe, then drawing a small mat near my lounge,
+    he squatted on the floor, and we smoked in silence, listening
+    to the gentle lapping of the lagoon waters upon the inner beach
+    and the beating, never-ceasing hum of the surf on the reef
+    beyond. Overhead the branches of the palms swayed and rustled
+    to the night-breeze.</p>
+
+    <p>Presently, as I turned to look seaward, I caught the old
+    man's dark eyes fixed upon my face, and in them I read a
+    sympathy that at that time and place was grateful to me.</p>
+
+    <p>"Six months is long for one who waits, P&#226;k&#237;a," I
+    said. "I came here but to stay four months and trade for copra;
+    then the ship was to call and take me to Ponap&#233;, in the
+    far north-west. And Ponap&#233; is a great land to such a man
+    as me."</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 27 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page022" name="page022">[pg 22]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <i>Etonu! Etonu!</i>
+
+    I know it. Thrice have I been there when I sailed in the
+    whaleships. A great land truly, like the island called Juan
+    Fernandez, of which I have told thee, with high mountains green
+    to the summits with trees, and deep, dark valleys wherein the
+    sound of the sea is never heard but when the surf beats hard
+    upon the reef. Ah! a fine land&#8212;better than this poor
+    <i>motu</i>
+
+    , which is as but a ring of sand set in the midst of the deep
+    sea. Would that I were young to go there with thee! Tell me,
+    dost know the two small, high islands in the
+    <i>ava</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_2" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[2]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    which is called Jakoits? Hast seen the graves of two white men
+    there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know the islands well; but I have never seen the graves
+    of any white men there. Who were they, and when did they
+    die?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, I am a foolish old man. I forget how old I am. Perhaps,
+    when thou wert a child in thy mother's arms, the graves stood
+    up out of the greensward at the foot of the high cliff which
+    faces to the south. Tell me, is there not a high wall of rock a
+    little way back from the landing beach?... Aye!... that is the
+    place ... and the bones of the men are there, though now great
+    trees may grow over the place. They were both good
+    men&#8212;good to look at, tall and strong; and they fought and
+    died there just under the cliff. I saw them die, for I was
+    there with the captain of my ship. We, and others with us, saw
+    it all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who were they, P&#226;k&#237;a, and how came they to
+    fight?"</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 28 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page023" name="page023">[pg 23]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    One was a trader, whose name was Preston; he lived on the
+    mainland of Ponap&#233;, where he had a great house and oil
+    store and many servants. The name of the other man was Frank.
+    They fought because of a woman."</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell me the story, P&#226;k&#237;a. Thou hast seen many
+    lands and many strange things. And when ye come and sit and
+    talk to me the dulness goeth away from me and I no longer think
+    of the ship; for of all the people on this
+    <i>motu</i>
+
+    , to thee and Temana my servant alone do I talk freely. And
+    Temana is now at church."</p>
+
+    <p>The old man chuckled. "Aye, he is at church because Malepa,
+    his wife, is so jealous of him that she fears to leave him
+    alone. Better would it please him to be sitting here with
+    us."</p>
+
+    <p>I drew the mat curtain across the sitting-room window so
+    that we could not be seen by prying eyes, and put two cups, a
+    gourd of water, and some brandy on the table. Except my own
+    man, Temana, the rest of the natives were intensely jealous of
+    the poor old ex-sailor and wanderer in many lands, and they
+    very much resented his frequent visits to me&#8212;partly on
+    account of the occasional glass of grog which I gave him, and
+    partly because he was suspected of still being a
+    <i>tagata po-uriuri, i.e.</i>
+
+    , a heathen. This, however, he vigorously denied, and though
+    Mar&#233;ko, the Samoan teacher, was a kind-hearted and
+    tolerant man for a native minister, the deacons delighted in
+    persecuting and harassing the ancient upon every possible
+    opportunity, and upon one pretext or another had
+<!-- Page 29 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page024" name="page024">[pg 24]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    succeeded in robbing him of his land and dividing it among his
+    relatives; so that now in his extreme old age he was dependent
+    upon one of his daughters, a woman who herself must have been
+    past sixty.</p>
+
+    <p>I poured some brandy into the cups; we clicked them together
+    and said, "May you be lucky" to each other. Then he told me of
+    Solepa.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"There were many whaleships came to anchor in the three
+    harbours of Ponap&#233; in those days. They came there for wood
+    and water and fresh provisions, before they sailed to the cold,
+    icy seas of the south. I was then a boat-steerer in an English
+    ship&#8212;a good and lucky ship with a good captain. When we
+    came to Ponap&#233; we found there six other whaleships, all
+    anchored close together under the shelter of the two islets.
+    All the captains were friends, and the few white men who lived
+    on shore were friends with them, and every night there was much
+    singing and dancing on board the ships, for, as was the custom,
+    every one on board had been given a Ponap&#233; girl for wife
+    as long as his ship stayed there; and sometimes a ship would be
+    there a long time&#8212;a month perhaps.</p>
+
+    <p>"The trader who lived in the big house was one of the first
+    to come on board our ship; for the captain and he were good
+    friends. They talked together on the poop deck, and I heard the
+    trader say that he had been away to Honolulu for nearly a year
+    and had brought back with him a young wife.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 30 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page025" name="page025">[pg 25]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    'Good,' said my captain, 'to-night I shall come ashore and
+    drink
+    <i>manuia!</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_3" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[3]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    to ye both.'</p>
+
+    <p>"The trader was pleased, and said that some of the other
+    captains could come also, and that he had sent a letter to the
+    other trader, Frank, who lived on the other side of the island,
+    bidding him to come and greet the new wife. At these words the
+    face of Stacey&#8212;that was my captain's name, became dark,
+    and he said&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"'You are foolish. Such a man as he is, is better away from
+    thy house&#8212;and thy wife. He is a
+    <i>manaia</i>
+
+    , an
+    <i>ulavale</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_4" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[4]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    . Take heed of my words and have no dealings with him.'</p>
+
+    <p>"But the man Preston only laughed. He was a fool in this
+    though he was so clever in many other things. He was a big man,
+    broad in the shoulders with the bright eye and the merry laugh
+    of a boy. He had been a sailor, but had wearied of the life,
+    and so he bought land in Ponap&#233; and became a trader. He
+    was a fair-dealing man with the people there, and so in three
+    or four years he became rich, and bought more land and built a
+    schooner which he sent away to far distant islands to trade for
+    pearl-shell and
+    <i>loli</i>
+
+    (beche-de-mer). Then it was that he went to Honolulu and came
+    back with a wife.</p>
+
+    <p>"That day ere it became dark I went on shore with my
+    captain; some of the other captains went with us. The white man
+    met them on the beach, surrounded by many of his servants, male
+    and female. Some were of Ponap&#233;, some from Tahiti, some
+    from Oahu, and some from the place which you call Savage Island
+    and we call Niu&#233;. As soon as the captains had stepped out
+    upon the beach and I had bidden the four sailors who were with
+    me to push off to return to the ship, the trader, seeing the
+    tatooing on my arms, gave a shout.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 31 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page026" name="page026">[pg 26]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    'Ho,' he cried, turning to my captain, 'whence comes that
+    boat-steerer of thine? By the markings on his arms and chest he
+    should be from the isles of the Tokelau.'</p>
+
+    <p>"My captain laughed. 'He comes from near there. He is of
+    Nukufetau.'</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let him stay on shore to-night, for there are here
+    with me a man and a woman from Nanomaga; they can talk
+    together. And my wife Solepa, too, will be well pleased to see
+    him, for her mother was a Samoan, and this man can talk to her
+    in her mother's tongue.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'So I too went up to the house with the white men, but
+    would not enter with them, for I was stripped to the waist and
+    could not go into the presence of the lady. Presently the man
+    and woman from Nanomaga sought me out and embraced me and made
+    much of me and took me into another part of the house, where I
+    waited till one of my shipmates returned from the ship bringing
+    my jumper and trousers of white duck and a new Panama hat.
+    T&#257;p&#257;! I was a fine-looking man in those days, and
+    women looked at me from the corner of the eye. And now&#8212;
+<!-- Page 32 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page027" name="page027">[pg 27]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    look at me now! I am like a blind fish which is swept hither
+    and thither by the current against the rocks and sandbanks.
+    Give me some more grog, dear friend; when I talk of the days of
+    my youth my belly yearns for it, and I am not ashamed to
+    beg.</p>
+
+    <p>"Presently, after I had dressed myself, I was taken by the
+    Nanomea man into the big room where Solepa, the white man's
+    wife, was sitting with the white men. She came to me and took
+    my hand, and said to me in Samoan
+    <i>'Talofa, P&#226;k&#237;a, e m&#257;lol&#333; ea oe?'</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_5" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[5]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    and my heart was glad; for it was long since I heard any one
+    speak in a tongue which is akin to mine own.... Was she
+    beautiful? you ask. T&#257;p&#257;! All women are beautiful
+    when they are young, and their eyes are full and clear and
+    their voices are soft and their bosoms are round and smooth!
+    All I can remember of her is that she was very young, with a
+    white, fair skin, and dressed like the
+    <i>papalagi</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_6" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[6]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    women I have seen in Peretania and It&#257;lia and in Chili and
+    in Sydney.</p>
+
+    <p>"As I stood before her, hat in hand and with my eyes looking
+    downward, which is proper and correct for a modest man to do
+    when a high lady speaks to him before many people, a white man
+    who had been sitting at the far end of the room came over to me
+    and said some words of greeting to me. This was Franka
+    <a href="#footnote_7" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[7]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    &#8212;he whom my captain said was a
+    <i>manaia</i>
+
+    . He was better clothed than any other of the white men, and
+    was proud and overbearing in his manner. He
+<!-- Page 33 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page028" name="page028">[pg 28]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    had brought with him more than a score of young Ponap&#233;
+    men, all of whom carried rifles and had cutlasses strapped to
+    their waists. This was done to show the people of Jakoits that
+    he was as great a man as Preston, whom he hated, as you will
+    see. But Preston had naught for him but good words, and when he
+    saw the armed men he bade them welcome and set aside a house
+    for them to sleep in, and his servants brought them many
+    baskets of cooked food&#8212;taro and yams, and fish, turtle,
+    and pork. All this I saw whilst I was in the big room.</p>
+
+    <p>"After I had spoken with the lady Solepa I returned to where
+    the man from Nanomaga and his wife were awaiting me. They
+    pressed me to eat and drink, and by and by sent for a young
+    girl to make kava. T&#257;p&#257;! that kava of Ponap&#233;! It
+    is not made there as it is in Samoa&#8212;where the young men
+    and women chew the dried root and mix it in a wooden
+    <i>tanoa</i>
+
+    (bowl); there the green root is crushed up in a hollowed stone
+    and but little water is added, so that it is strong, very
+    strong, and one is soon made drunk.</p>
+
+    <p>"The girl who made the kava for us was named Sipi. She had
+    eyes like the stars when they are shining upon a deep mountain
+    pool, and round her smooth forehead was bound a circlet of
+    yellow pandanus leaf worked with beads of many colours and
+    fringed with red parrakeet feathers; about her waist were two
+    fine mats, and her bosom and hands were stained with turmeric.
+    I sat and watched her beating the kava, and as her right arm
+    rose and fell her short, black wavy hair danced about her
+    cheeks and hid the
+<!-- Page 34 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page029" name="page029">[pg 29]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    red mouth and white teeth when she smiled at me. And she smiled
+    at me very often, and the man and woman beside me laughed when
+    they saw me regard her so intently, and asked me was it in my
+    mind to have her for my wife.</p>
+
+    <p>"I did not answer at once, for I knew that if I ran away
+    from the ship for the sake of this girl I would be doing a
+    foolish thing, for I had money coming to me when the ship was
+    <i>oti folau</i>
+
+    (paid off). But, as I pondered, the girl bent forward and again
+    her eyes smiled at me through her hair; and then it was I saw
+    that on her head there was a narrow shaven strip from the crown
+    backward. Now, in Tokelau, this fashion is called
+    <i>tu tagita</i>
+
+    , and showeth that a girl is in her virginity. When I saw this
+    I was pleased, but to make sure I said to my friends, 'Her hair
+    is
+    <i>tu tagita</i>
+
+    . Is she a virgin?'</p>
+
+    <p>"The woman of Nanomaga laughed loudly at this and pinched my
+    hand, then she translated my words to the girl who looked into
+    my face and laughed too, shaking her head as she put one hand
+    over her eyes&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Nay, nay, O stranger,' she said, 'I am no virgin; neither
+    am I a harlot. I am respectable, and my father and mother have
+    land. I do not go to the ships.' Then she tossed her hair back
+    from her face and began to beat the kava again.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, this girl pleased me greatly, for there were no twists
+    in her tongue; so, when the kava-drinking was finished I made
+    her sit beside me, and the Nanomaga woman told her I would run
+    away from the ship if she would be my wife. She put her face
+<!-- Page 35 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page030" name="page030">[pg 30]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    to my shoulder, and then took the circlet from her forehead and
+    bound it round my bared arm, and I gave her a silver ring which
+    I wore on my little finger. Then, together with the Nanomaga
+    man and his wife, we made our plans.... Ah! she was a fine
+    girl. For nearly a year was she wife to me until she sickened
+    and died of the
+    <i>meisake elo</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_8" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[8]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    which was brought to Ponap&#233; by the missionary ship from
+    Honolulu.</p>
+
+    <p>"So the girl and I made our plans, and my friends promised
+    to hide me when the time came for me to run away. We sat long
+    into the night, and I heard much of the man called Franka and
+    of the jealousy he bore to Preston. He was jealous of him
+    because of two reasons; one was that he possessed such a fine
+    house and so much land and a schooner, and the other was that
+    the people of Jakoits paid him the same respect as they paid
+    one of their high chiefs. So that was why Franka hated him. His
+    heart was full of hatred, and sometimes when he was drunk in
+    his own house at R&#333;an Kiti he would boast to the natives
+    that he would one day show them that he was a better man than
+    Preston. Sometimes his drunken boastings were brought to the
+    ears of Preston, who only laughed and took no heed, and always
+    gave him the good word when they met, which was but seldom, for
+    Jakoits and Kiti are far apart, and there was bad blood between
+    the people of the two places. And then&#8212;so the girl Sipi
+    afterwards told me&#8212;Franka was a lover
+<!-- Page 36 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page031" name="page031">[pg 31]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of grog and a stealer of women, and kept a noisy house and made
+    much trouble, and so Preston went not near him, for he was a
+    quiet man and no drinker, and hated dissension. And, besides
+    this, Franka took part in the wars of the Kiti people, and went
+    about with a following of armed men, and such money as he made
+    in trading he spent in muskets and powder and ball; for all
+    this Preston had no liking, and one day he said to Franka, 'Be
+    warned, this fighting and slaying is wrong; it is not correct
+    for a white man to enter into these wars; you are doing wrong,
+    and some day you will be killed.' Now these were good words,
+    but of what use are good words to an evil heart?</p>
+
+    <p>"So we pair sat talking and smoking, and the girl Sipi made
+    us more kava, and then again sat by my side and leant her face
+    against my shoulder, and presently we heard the sounds of music
+    and singing from the big house. We went outside to see and
+    listen, and saw that Preston was playing on a
+    <i>pese laakau</i>
+
+    <a href="#footnote_9" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[9]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    and Solepa and the captain of my ship were dancing
+    together&#8212;like as white people dance&#8212;and two of the
+    other captains were also dancing in the same fashion. All round
+    the room were seated many of the high chiefs of Ponap&#233;
+    with their wives, dressed very finely, and at one end of the
+    room stood a long table covered with a white cloth, on which
+    was laid food of all kinds and wine and grog to
+    drink&#8212;just as you would see in your own country when a
+    rich man gives a feast. Presently as we looked, we saw Franka
+<!-- Page 37 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page032" name="page032">[pg 32]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    walk into the room from a side door and look about. His face
+    was flushed, and he staggered slightly in his steps. He went
+    over to the table and poured out some grog, and then beckoned
+    to Preston to come and drink with him, but Preston smiled and
+    shook his head. How could he go when he was making the music?
+    Then Franka struck his clenched fist on the table in anger, and
+    went over to Preston, just as the dancers had stopped.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Why will ye not drink with me?' he said in a loud voice so
+    that all heard him. 'Art thou too great a man to drink with me
+    again?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Nay,' answered the other jestingly and taking no heed of
+    Franka's rude voice and angry eyes, 'not so great that I cannot
+    drink with all my friends tonight, be they white or brown,' and
+    so saying he bade every one in the room come to the great table
+    with him and drink
+    <i>manuia</i>
+
+    to him and his young wife.</p>
+
+    <p>"So the nine white men&#8212;Preston, and Franka, and the
+    seven whaleship captains, and Nanakin, the head chief of
+    Ponap&#233;, and many other lesser chiefs, all gathered
+    together around the table and filled their glasses and drank
+    <i>manuia</i>
+
+    to the bride, who sat on a chair in the centre of the room
+    surrounded by the chiefs' wives, and smiled and bowed when my
+    captain called her name and raised his glass towards her. Then
+    after this he again took up the
+    <i>pese laakau</i>
+
+    and began to play, and my captain and Solepa danced again.
+    Suddenly Franka pushed his way through the others and rudely
+    placed his hand on her arm.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 38 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page033" name="page033">[pg 33]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    'Come,' he said, 'leave this fellow and dance with me.'</p>
+
+    <p>"She cried out in terror, and then silence fell upon all as
+    my captain withdrew his right arm from her waist and struck
+    Franka on the mouth; it was a strong blow, and Franka staggered
+    backwards and then fell near to the open door. As he rose to
+    his feet again my captain came up to him and bade him leave
+    quickly. 'We want no drunken bullies here,' he said, and at
+    that moment Franka drew a pistol and pointed it at his chest. I
+    leapt upon him and as we struggled together the pistol went
+    off, but the bullet hurt no one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then there was a great commotion, and my captain and
+    Preston ran to my aid and seized Franka. They dragged him out
+    of the room, and with words of scorn and contempt threw him out
+    amongst his own people who were gathered together outside the
+    house, with their muskets in their hands. But already Nanakin
+    and his chiefs had summoned their fighting men; they came
+    running towards us from all directions, and surrounding Franka
+    and his men, drove them away and bade them beware of ever
+    returning to Jakoits.</p>
+
+    <p>"When they had gone, my captain called me to him, and,
+    turning to the other white men, said, 'This man hath saved my
+    life. He hath a brave heart. I shall do much for him in the
+    time to come.' Then he and the others all shook my hand and
+    praised me, and I was silent and said nothing, for I was
+    ashamed to think I was about to run away from such a good
+    captain.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 39 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page034" name="page034">[pg 34]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    In the morning we went back to the ship, and the boats were
+    then sent away to fill and bring off casks of water. Every time
+    my boat went I took something with me; tobacco and clothing and
+    other things which I had in my sea chest. Sipi and some other
+    girls met us at the watering place, and they took these from me
+    and put them in a place of safety. That afternoon as the boats
+    were about to leave the shore for the last time, towing the
+    casks, I slipped into the forest which grew very densely on
+    both sides of the little river, and ran till I came to the spot
+    where Sipi was awaiting me. Then together we went inland
+    towards the mountains and kept on walking till nightfall. That
+    night we slept in the forest; we were afraid to make a fire
+    lest it should be seen by some of Nanakin's people and betray
+    us, for I knew that my captain would cause a great search to be
+    made for me. When dawn came we again set out and went on
+    steadily till we came to the summit of the range of mountains
+    which divides the island. There was a clear space on the side
+    of the mountain; a great village had once stood there, so Sipi
+    told me, but all those who had dwelt there had long since died,
+    and their ghosts could be heard flitting to and fro at night
+    time. Far below us we could see the blue sea, and the long
+    waving line of reef with the surf beating upon it, and within,
+    anchored in the green water, were the seven ships and Preston's
+    schooner.</p>
+
+    <p>"All that day and the next the girl and I worked at building
+    a little house for us to live in until the ships had gone. We
+    had no fear of any one seeking
+<!-- Page 40 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page035" name="page035">[pg 35]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    us out in that place, for it had a bad name and none but
+    travelling parties from R&#333;an Kiti ever passed there. Sipi
+    had brought with her a basket of cooked food; in the deserted
+    plantations we found plenty of bananas and yams, and in the
+    stream at the foot of the valley we caught many small fish.
+    Four days went by, and then one morning we saw the ships set
+    their sails and go to sea. We watched them till they touched
+    the sky rim and disappeared; then we went back to Jakoits.</p>
+
+    <p>"The white man and Solepa were sitting under the shade of a
+    tree in front of their house. I went boldly up to him and asked
+    him to give me work to do. At first he was angry, for he and my
+    captain were great friends, and said he would have naught to do
+    with me. Why did I run away from such a good man and such a
+    good ship? There were too many men like me, he said, in
+    Ponap&#233;, who had run away so that they might do naught but
+    wander from village to village and eat and drink and sleep.
+    Then again he asked why I had run away.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Because of her,' I said, pointing to the girl Sipi, who
+    was sitting at the gate with her face covered with the corner
+    of her mat. 'But I am no
+    <i>tafao vale</i>
+
+    .
+    <a href="#footnote_10" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[10]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    I am a true man. Give me work on thy ship.'</p>
+
+    <p>"He thought a little while, then he and Solepa talked
+    together, and Solepa bade Sipi come near so that she might talk
+    to her. Presently he said to me that I had done a foolish thing
+    to run away for the
+<!-- Page 41 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page036" name="page036">[pg 36]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    sake of the girl when I had money coming to me and when the
+    captain's heart was filled with friendship towards me for
+    turning aside Franka's pistol.</p>
+
+    <p>"I bent my head, for I was ashamed. Then I said, 'I care not
+    for the money I have lost, but I am eaten up with shame for
+    running away, for my captain was a good captain to me.'</p>
+
+    <p>"This pleased him, for he smiled and said, 'I will try thee.
+    I will make thee boatswain of the schooner, and this girl here
+    shall be servant to my wife.'</p>
+
+    <p>"So Sipi became servant to Solepa, and I was sent on board
+    the schooner to help prepare her for sea. My new captain gave
+    us a house to live in, and every night I came on shore. Ah,
+    those were brave times, and Preston made much of me when he
+    found that I was a true man and did my work well, and would
+    stand no saucy words nor black looks from those of the
+    schooner's crew who thought that the boatswain should be a
+    white man.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ten days after the whaleships had sailed, the schooner was
+    ready for sea. We were to sail to the westward isles to trade
+    for oil and tortoiseshell, and then go to China, where Preston
+    thought to sell his cargo. On the eve of the day on which we
+    were to leave, the mate, who was an old and stupid Siamani,
+    <a href="#footnote_11" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[11]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    went ashore to my master's house, and I was left in charge of
+    the schooner. Sipi, my wife, was with me, and we sat together
+    in the stern of the ship, smoking our
+    <i>sului</i>
+
+    (cigarettes) and talking of the time when I
+<!-- Page 42 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page037" name="page037">[pg 37]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    should return and buy a piece of land from her father's people,
+    on which I should build a new house. There were six native
+    sailors on board, and these, as the night drew on, spread their
+    mats on the fore deck and went to sleep. Then Sipi and I went
+    into the cabin, which was on deck, and we too slept.</p>
+
+    <p>"How long we had slumbered I cannot tell, but suddenly we
+    were aroused by the sound of a great clamour on deck and the
+    groans and cries of dying men, and then ere we were well
+    awakened the cabin door was opened and Solepa was thrust
+    inside. Then the door was quickly closed and fastened on the
+    outside, and I heard Franka's voice calling out orders to hoist
+    sails and slip the cable.</p>
+
+    <p>"There was a lamp burning dimly in the cabin, and Sipi and I
+    ran to the aid of Solepa, who lay prone upon the floor as if
+    dead. Her dress was torn, and her hands and arms were scratched
+    and bleeding, so that Sipi wept as she leant over her and put
+    water to her lips. In a little while she opened her eyes, and
+    when she saw us a great sob broke from her bosom and she caught
+    my hand in hers and tried to speak.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, grog is a good thing. It is good for a weak, panting
+    woman when her strength is gone and her soul is terrified, and
+    it is good for an old man who is despised by his relations
+    because he is bitten with poverty. There was grog in a wicker
+    jar in the cabin. I gave her some in a glass, and then as the
+    dog Franka, whose soul and body are now in hell, was getting
+    the schooner under way, she told me that while she and Preston
+    were asleep the house was
+<!-- Page 43 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page038" name="page038">[pg 38]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    surrounded by a hundred or more of men from R&#333;an Kiti, led
+    by Franka. They burst in suddenly, and Franka and some others
+    rushed into their sleeping-room and she was torn away from her
+    husband and carried down to the beach.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Is thy husband dead?' I asked.</p>
+
+    <p>"'I cannot tell,' she said in a weak voice. 'I heard some
+    shots fired and saw him struggling with Franka's men. That is
+    all I know. If he is dead then shall I die too. Give me a
+    knife, so that I may die.'</p>
+
+    <p>"As she spoke the schooner began to move, and again we heard
+    Franka's voice calling out in English to some one to go forward
+    and con the ship whilst he steered, for the night was dark and
+    he, clever stealer of women as he was, did not know the passage
+    out through the reef, and trusted to those with him who knew
+    but little more. Then something came into my mind, and I took
+    Solepa's hand in mine.</p>
+
+    <p>"'I will save thee from this pig Franka,' I said quickly,
+    'he shall never take thee away. Sit ye here with Sipi, and when
+    ye hear the schooner strike, spring ye both into the sea and
+    swim towards the two islands which are near.'</p>
+
+    <p>"In the centre of the deck cabin was a hatch which led into
+    the hold. There was no deck between, for the vessel was but
+    small. I took my knife from the sheath and then lifted the
+    hatch, descended, and crawled forward in the darkness to the
+    fore hatch, up which I crept very carefully, for I had much in
+    my mind. I saw a man standing up, holding on to the fore stay.
+    He was calling out to Franka every now
+<!-- Page 44 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page039" name="page039">[pg 39]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and then, telling him how to steer. I sprang up behind him, and
+    as I drove my knife into his back with my left hand, I struck
+    him with my right on his neck and he fell overboard. He was a
+    white man, I think for when my knife went into his back he
+    called out 'Oh Christ!' But then many native men who have mixed
+    with white people call out 'Oh, Christ,' just like white men
+    when they are drunk. Anyway, it does not matter now.</p>
+
+    <p>"But as I struck my knife into him, I called out in English
+    to put the helm hard down, for I saw that the schooner was very
+    near the reef on the starboard hand. Franka, who was at the
+    wheel, at once obeyed and was fooled, for the schooner, which
+    was now leaping and singing to the strong night wind from the
+    mountains smote suddenly upon the coral reef with a noise like
+    the felling of a great forest tree, and began to grind and tear
+    her timbers.</p>
+
+    <p>"Almost as she struck Solepa and Sipi stood by me, and
+    together we sprang overboard into the white surf ... Give me
+    some more grog, dear friend of my heart. I am no boaster, nor
+    am I a liar; but when I think of that swim to the shore through
+    the rolling seas with those two women, my belly cleaves to my
+    backbone and I become faint.... For the current was against us,
+    and neither Sipi nor Solepa were good swimmers, and many times
+    had we to clutch hold of the jagged coral, which tore our skins
+    so that our blood ran out freely, and had the sharks come to us
+    then I would not be here with thee to-night drinking this, thy
+    good sweet grog which thou givest me out of thy
+<!-- Page 45 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page040" name="page040">[pg 40]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    kind heart. T&#257;p&#257;! When I look into thy face and see
+    thy kind eyes, I am young again. I love thee, not alone because
+    thou hast been kind to me in my poverty and paid the fines of
+    my granddaughter when she hath committed adultery with the
+    young men of the village, but because thou hast seen many lands
+    and have upheld me before the teacher, who is a circumcised but
+    yet untatooed dog of a Samoan. A man who is not tatooed is no
+    better than a woman. He is a male harlot and should be
+    despised. He is only fit to associate with women, and has no
+    right to beget children....</p>
+
+    <p>"We three swam to the shore, and when the dawn came we saw
+    that the schooner stood high and dry on the reef and that
+    Franka and his men were trying to float her by throwing
+    overboard the iron ballast and putting a kedge anchor out upon
+    the lee side of the reef. And at the same time we saw three
+    boats put off from the mainland. These boats were all painted
+    white, and when I saw them I said to Solepa, 'Be of good heart.
+    Thy husband is not dead, for here are three of his boats
+    coming. He is not dead. He is coming to seek thee.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"The three boats came quickly towards the schooner, but ere
+    they reached her Franka and those with him got into the boats
+    in which they had boarded the vessel, and then we saw smoke
+    arise from the bow and stern.... They had set fire to the ship.
+    They were cowards. Fire is a great help to cowards, because in
+    the glare and dazzling light of burning houses or ships, when
+    the thunder of cannons and the
+<!-- Page 46 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page041" name="page041">[pg 41]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    rattle of rifles is heard, they can run about and kill
+    people.... I have seen these things done in Chili.... I have
+    seen men who would not stand and fight on board ship run away
+    on shore and slay women and children in their fury and
+    cowardice. No, they were not Englishmen; they were Spaniolas.
+    But the officers were Englishmen and Germans.
+    <i>They</i>
+
+    did not run away, they were killed. Brave men get killed and
+    cowards live. I am no coward though I am still alive. It is
+    quite proper that I should live, for I never ran away when
+    there was fighting to be done. I have only been a fool because
+    of my love for women. No one could say I was a coward, and no
+    one can say I am a fool, because I am too old now to be a
+    fool.</p>
+
+    <p>"As Franka and those with him left the burning schooner and
+    rowed towards the islands, the three boats from the shore
+    changed their course and followed him. Franka and his men were
+    the first to reach the land, and they quickly ran up the beach
+    and crouched behind the bushes which grew at high-water mark.
+    They all had guns, and Sipi and Solepa and I saw them waiting
+    to shoot. We were hiding amid the roots of a great banyan tree,
+    and could see well. As the boats drew near Solepa watched them
+    eagerly, and then began to weep and laugh at the same time when
+    she saw her husband Preston was steering the one which led. She
+    was a good woman. She loved her husband. I was pleased with
+    her, and told her to be of good cheer, for I was sure that
+    Preston and his people would kill Franka and those with him,
+    for as they rowed they made no noise. No one shouted nor
+<!-- Page 47 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page042" name="page042">[pg 42]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    challenged; they came on and on, and the white man Preston
+    stood up with the steer oar in his hand, and his face was as a
+    stone in which was set eyes of fire. When his boat was within
+    twenty fathoms of the beach the rowers ceased, and he held up
+    his hand to those who awaited his coming.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Listen to me, men of R&#333;an Kiti. We are as three to
+    one of ye, and ye are caught in a trap. Death is in my mouth if
+    I speak the word. Tell me, is my wife Solepa alive?'</p>
+
+    <p>"No one answered, but suddenly Franka stepped out from
+    behind the bushes and pointed his rifle at him, and was about
+    to pull the trigger when a young man of his party who was of
+    good heart seized him by the arm, and cried out 'twas a
+    coward's act; then two or three followed him, and together they
+    bore Franka down upon the sand; and one of them cried out to
+    Preston&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"'This is a wrong business. We were led astray by this man.
+    We are no cowards, and have no ill-will to thee. Thy wife is
+    alive. She swam ashore with two others when the ship struck.
+    Are we dead men?'</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, ere Preston could answer, Solepa leapt out from
+    beneath the banyan tree and ran through the men of R&#333;an
+    Kiti towards the beach, and cried&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Oh, my husband, for the love of God let no blood be shed!
+    I am well and unharmed. Spare these people and spare even this
+    man Franka, for he is mad!'</p>
+
+    <p>"Then Preston leapt out of the boat and put his
+<!-- Page 48 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page043" name="page043">[pg 43]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    arms around her waist and kissed her, and then put her aside,
+    and called to every one around him&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"'These are my words,' he said. 'I am a man of peace, but
+    this man Franka is a robber and a dog, and hath stolen upon me
+    in the night and slain my people, and his hands are reddened
+    with blood. And he hath put foul dishonour on me by stealing
+    Solepa my wife, and carrying her away from my house as if she
+    were a slave or a harlot. And there is no room here for such a
+    man to live unless he be a better man than I. But I am no
+    murderer. So stand aside all! Let him rise and rest awhile, and
+    then shall we two fight, man to man. Either he or I must
+    die.'</p>
+
+    <p>"Then many men of both sides came to him and said, 'Let this
+    thing be finished. You are a strong man. Take this robber and
+    slay him as you would slay a pig.' But he put them aside, and
+    said he would fight him man to man, as Englishmen fought.</p>
+
+    <p>"So when Franka was rested two cutlasses were brought, and
+    the two men stood face to face on the sand. I kept close to
+    Franka, for I meant to stab him if I could, but Preston angrily
+    bade me stand back. Then the two crossed their swords together
+    and began to fight. It was a great fight, but it did not last
+    long, for Preston soon ran his sword through Franka's chest. I
+    saw it come out through his back. But as he fell and Preston
+    bent over him he thrust his cutlass into Preston's stomach and
+    worked it to and fro. Then Preston fell on him, and they died
+    together.</p>
+
+    <p>"There was no more bloodshed. Solepa and Sipi and I dressed
+    the dead man in his best clothes, and the
+<!-- Page 49 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page044" name="page044">[pg 44]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    R&#333;an Kiti men dressed Franka in his best clothes, and a
+    great funeral feast was made, and we buried them together on
+    the little island. And Solepa went back again to Honolulu in a
+    whaleship. She was young and fair, and should have soon found
+    another husband. I do not know. But Sipi was a fine wife to
+    me."</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 50 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page045" name="page045">[pg 45]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='The_Fisher_Folk_of_Nukufetau'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>The Fisher Folk of Nukufetau</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>Early one morning, about a week after I had settled down on
+    Nukufetau as a trader, I opened my chest of fishing-gear and
+    began to overhaul it. In a few minutes I was surrounded by an
+    eager and interested group of natives, who examined everything
+    with the greatest curiosity.</p>
+
+    <p>Now for the preceding twelve months I had been living on the
+    little island of Nanomaga, a day's sail from Nukufetau; and
+    between Nanomaga and Nukufetau there was a great bitterness of
+    long standing&#8212;the Nanomagans claimed to be the most
+    daring canoe-men and expert fishermen in all the eight isles of
+    the Ellice Group, and the people of Nukufetau resented the
+    claim strongly. The feeling had been accentuated by my good
+    friend the Samoan teacher on Nanomaga, himself an ardent
+    fisherman, writing to his brother minister on Nukufetau and
+    informing him that although I was not a high-class Christian I
+    was all right in all other respects, and a good
+    fisherman&#8212;"all that he did not know we have taught him,
+    therefore," he added slyly, "let your young men watch him so
+    that they may learn how to fish in deep and rough
+<!-- Page 51 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page046" name="page046">[pg 46]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    water, such as ours." These remarks were of course duly made
+    public, and caused much indignation, neither the minister nor
+    his flock liking the gibe about the deep, rough water; also the
+    insinuation that anything about fishing was to be learnt from
+    the new white man was annoying and uncalled for.</p>
+
+    <p>I must here mention that the natives of De Peyster's Island
+    (Nukufetau) caught all the fish they wanted in the smooth and
+    spacious waters of the lagoon, and were not fond of venturing
+    outside the barrier reef, except during the bonito season, or
+    when the sea was very calm at night, to catch flying-fish.
+    Then, too, the currents outside the reef were swift and
+    dangerous, and the canoes had either to be carried a long
+    distance over the coral or paddled a couple of miles across the
+    lagoon to the ship passage before the open sea was gained.
+    Hudson's Island (Nanomaga)&#8212;a tiny spot less than four
+    miles in circumference&#8212;had no lagoon, and all fishing was
+    done in the deep water of the ocean. The natives were used to
+    launching their canoes, year in and year out, to face the
+    wildest surf, and were, in consequence, wonderfully expert, and
+    in the history of the island there is only one instance of a
+    man having been drowned. The De Peyster people, by reason of
+    the advantage of their placid lagoon, had no reason to risk
+    their lives in the surf in this manner, and so, naturally
+    enough, they were not nearly as skilful in the management of
+    their frail canoes when they had to face a sweeping sea on the
+    outer or ocean reef.</p>
+
+    <p>Just as I was placing some coils of heavy, deep-sea
+<!-- Page 52 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page047" name="page047">[pg 47]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    lines upon the matted floor, Mar&#232;ko the native teacher,
+    fat, jovial, and bubbling-voiced, entered in a great hurry, and
+    hardly giving himself time to shake hands with me, announced in
+    a tone of triumph, that a body of
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    (baby bonito) had just entered the passage and were making
+    their way up the lagoon.</p>
+
+    <p>In less than ten seconds every man, woman, and child on the
+    island, except the teacher and myself, were agog with
+    excitement and bawling and shouting as they rushed to the beach
+    to launch and man the canoes, the advent of the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    having been expected for some days. In nearly all the
+    equatorial islands of the Pacific these beautiful little fish
+    make their appearance every year almost to a day, with
+    unvarying regularity. They remain in the smooth waters of
+    lagoons for about two weeks, swimming about in incredible
+    numbers, and apparently so terrified of their many enemies in
+    their own element, and the savage, keen-eyed frigate birds
+    which constantly assail them from above, that they sometimes
+    crowd into small pools on the inner reef, and when the tide is
+    low, seek to hide themselves by lying in thick masses under the
+    overhanging ledges of coral rock. Simultaneously&#8212;or at
+    least within a day or two at most&#8212;the swarming millions
+    of
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    are followed into the lagoons by the
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    &#8212;a large black and grey rock-cod (much esteemed by the
+    natives for the delicacy of its flavour) and great numbers of
+    enormous eels. At other times of the year both the
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    and the eels are never or but rarely seen inside the lagoons,
+    but are occasionally caught outside the reef at a good
+    depth&#8212;forty to sixty
+<!-- Page 53 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page048" name="page048">[pg 48]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    fathoms. As soon, however, as the young bonito appear, both
+    eels and rock-cod change their normal habits, and entering the
+    lagoons through the passages thereto, they take up their
+    quarters in the deeper parts&#8212;places which are fringed by
+    a labyrinthine border of coral forest, and are at most ten
+    fathoms deep. Here, when the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    are covering the surface above, the eels and rock-cod actually
+    rise to the surface and play havoc among them, especially
+    during moonlight nights, and in the daytime both rock-cod and
+    eels may be seen pursuing their hapless prey in the very
+    shallowest water, amidst the little pools and runnels of the
+    coral reef. It is at this time that the natives of Nukufetau
+    and some other islands have some glorious sport, for in
+    addition to the huge eels and rock-cod many other deep-sea fish
+    flock into the shallower lagoon waters&#8212;all in pursuit of
+    the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    &#8212;and all eager to take the hook.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>As soon as the natives had left the house, Mar&#232;ko
+    turned to me with a beaming smile. "Let them go on first and
+    net some
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    for us for bait," he said, "you and I shall follow in my own
+    canoe and fish for
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    . It will be a great thing for one of us to catch the first
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    of the season. Yesterday, when I was over there," pointing to
+    two tiny islets within the lagoon, "I saw some
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    . The natives laugh at me and say I am mistaken&#8212;that
+    because the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    had not come there could be no
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    . Now,
+    <i>I</i>
+
+    think that the big fish came in some days ago, but the strong
+<!-- Page 54 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page049" name="page049">[pg 49]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    wind and current kept the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    outside till now. Come."</p>
+
+    <p>I needed no pressing. In five minutes I had my basket of
+    lines (of white American cotton) ready, and joined Mar&#232;ko.
+    His canoe (the best on the island, of course) was already in
+    the water and manned by his two sons, boys of eight and twelve
+    respectively. I sat for'ard, the two youngsters amidships, the
+    father took the post of honour as
+    <i>tautai</i>
+
+    or steersman, and with a chuckle of satisfaction from the boys,
+    off we went in the wake of about thirty other canoes.</p>
+
+    <p>Oh, the delight of urging a light canoe over the glassy
+    water of an island lagoon, and watching the changing colours
+    and strange, grotesque shapes of the coral trees and plants of
+    the garden beneath as they vanish swiftly astern, and the quick
+
+    <i>chip, chip</i>
+
+    of the flashing paddles sends the whirling, noisy eddies to
+    right and left, and frights the lazy, many-hued rock-fish into
+    the darker depths beneath! On, on, till the half mile or more
+    of shallow water which covers the inner reef is passed, and
+    then suddenly you shoot over the top of the submarine wall,
+    into deepest, loveliest blue, full thirty fathoms deep, and as
+    calm and quiet as an infant sleeping on its mother's bosom,
+    though perhaps not a quarter of a mile away on either hand the
+    long rollers of the Pacific are bellowing and thundering on the
+    grim black shelves of the weather coast.</p>
+
+    <p>So it was on this morning, but with added delights and
+    beauties; as instead of striking straight across the lagoon to
+    our rendezvous we had to skirt the beaches
+<!-- Page 55 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page050" name="page050">[pg 50]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of a chain of thickly wooded islets, which gave forth a sweet
+    smell, mingled with the odours of
+    <i>nono</i>
+
+    blossoms; for during the night rain had fallen after a long
+    month of dry weather, and Nature was breathing with joy. High
+    overhead there floated some snow-white tropic birds&#8212;those
+    gentle, ethereal creatures which, to the toil-spent seaman who
+    watches their mysterious poise in illimitable space, seem to
+    denote the greater Mystery and Rest that lieth beyond all
+    things; and lower down, and sweeping swiftly to and fro with
+    steady, outspread wing and long, forked tail, the fierce-eyed,
+    savage frigate birds scanned the surface of the water in search
+    of prey, and then finding it not, rose without apparent motion
+    to the cloudless canopy of blue and became as but tiny black
+    specks&#8212;and then,
+    <i>swish</i>
+
+    ! and the tiny black specks which but a minute ago were high in
+    heaven are flashing by your cheeks with a weird, whistling
+    sound like winged spectres. You look for them. They are gone.
+    Already they are a thousand feet overhead. Five of them. And
+    all five are as motionless as if they, with their wide,
+    outspread wings, had never moved from their present position
+    for a thousand years.</p>
+
+    <p>"Chip, chip," and "chunk, chunk," go our paddles as we now
+    head eastward towards the rising sun in whose resplendent rays
+    the tufted palms of the two islets stand clearly out,
+    silhouetted against the sea rim beyond. Now and again we hear,
+    as from a long, long distance, the echoes of the voices of the
+    people in the canoes ahead; a soft white mist began to gather
+    over and then ascend from the water, and as we drew near
+<!-- Page 56 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page051" name="page051">[pg 51]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the islets the occasional thunder of the serf on Motuluga Reef
+    we heard awhile ago changed into a monotonous droning hum.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>Aue</i>
+
+    !" said Mar&#232;ko the
+    <i>tautai</i>
+
+    , with a laugh, as he ceased paddling and laid his paddle
+    athwartships, "'tis like to be a hot day and calm. So much the
+    better for our fishing, for the water will be very clear. Boy,
+    give me a coconut to drink."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take some whisky with it, Mar&#232;ko," I said, taking a
+    flask out of my basket.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>Isa</i>
+
+    ! Shame upon you! How can you say such a thing to me, a
+    minister!" And then he added, with a reproachful look, "and my
+    children here, too." He would have winked, but he dared not do
+    so, for one of his boys had turned his face aft and was facing
+    him. I, however, made him a hurried gesture which he quite
+    understood. Good old Mar&#232;ko! He was an honest,
+    generous-hearted, broad-minded fellow, but terribly afraid of
+    his tyrannical deacons, who objected to him smoking even in the
+    seclusion of his own curatage, and otherwise bullied and
+    worried him into behaving exactly as they thought he
+    should.</p>
+
+    <p>By the time we reached the islets the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    catching had begun, and more than a hundred natives were
+    encircling a considerable area of water with finely-meshed nets
+    and driving the fish shoreward upon a small sandy beach, where
+    they were scooped up in gleaming masses of shining blue and
+    silver by a number of women and children, who tumbled over and
+    pushed each other aside amidst much laughter and merriment.</p>
+
+    <p>On the larger of the two islets were a few thatched
+<!-- Page 57 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page052" name="page052">[pg 52]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    huts with open sides. One of these was reserved for the
+    missionary and the white man, and hauling our canoe up on the
+    beach at the invitation of the people, we sat down under a shed
+    whilst the women grilled us some of the freshly-caught fish.
+    This took barely over ten minutes, as fires had already been
+    lighted by the children. The absence of bread was made up for
+    by the flesh of half-grown coconuts and cooked
+    <i>puraka</i>
+
+    &#8212;gigantic species of taro which thrives well in the sandy
+    soil of the Equatorial islands of the Pacific. Just as we had
+    finished eating and were preparing our lines we heard loud
+    cries from the natives who were still engaged among the
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    , and three or four of them seizing spears began chasing what
+    were evidently some large fish. Presently one of them darted
+    his weapon, and then gave a loud cry of triumph, as he leapt
+    into the water and dragged out a large salmon-like fish called
+    "utu", which was at once brought ashore for my inspection. The
+    man who had struck it&#8212;an active, wiry old fellow named
+    Viliamu (William) was panting with excitement. Some large
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    , he said, had just made their appearance with the
+    <i>utu</i>
+
+    and were pursuing the small fish; therefore would we please
+    hurry forward with our preparations. Then the leader of the
+    entire party stood up and bellowed out in bull-like tones his
+    instructions. The canoes were all to start together, and when
+    the ground was reached all lines were to be lowered
+    simultaneously; there was to be no crowding. The white man and
+    missionary, however, if they wished, could start first and make
+    a choice of position.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no," I said, "let us all start fair."</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 58 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page053" name="page053">[pg 53]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    This was greeted with a chorus of approval, and then leaving
+    the women and children to attend to the camp, we hurried back
+    to the canoes. Just as we were leaving the hut I had a look at
+    the
+    <i>utu</i>
+
+    &#8212;a fish I had never before seen. It was about three feet
+    in length, and only for its head (which was coarse and clumsy)
+    much like a heavy salmon. The back was covered with light green
+    scales, the sides and belly a pure silver, and the fins and
+    tail tipped with yellow. It weighed about 20 lbs., and
+    presented a very handsome appearance.</p>
+
+    <p>The fishing-ground to which we were now paddling was not
+    half a mile from the islets, and lay between them and the outer
+    reef which formed its northern boundary. It consisted of a
+    series of deep channels or connected pools running or situated
+    amidst a network of minor reefs, the surfaces of which were,
+    for the most part, bare at low water. Generally the depth was
+    from eight to ten fathoms; in places, however, it was much
+    deeper, and I subsequently found that there were spots whereon
+    I could stand (on the coral ledge) and drop my line into chasms
+    of thirty-two or thirty-three fathoms. Here the water was
+    almost as blue to the eye as the ocean, and here the very
+    largest fish resorted&#8212;such as the
+    <i>pura</i>
+
+    , a species of rock-cod, and a blue-scaled groper, the native
+    name of which I cannot now recall.</p>
+
+    <p>It must have been nearly ten o'clock when the canoes were
+    all in position, and the word was given to let go lines. The
+    particular spot in which we were congregated was about three
+    acres in extent and about
+<!-- Page 59 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page054" name="page054">[pg 54]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    seven fathoms in depth, with water as clear as crystal; and
+    even the dullest eye could discern the smallest pebble or piece
+    of broken coral lying upon the bottom, which was generally
+    composed of patches of coarse sand surrounded by an interlacing
+    fringe of growing coral, or white, blue, or yellow boulders. A
+    glance over the side showed us that the
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    had arrived; we could see numbers of them swimming lazily to
+    and fro beneath, awaiting the flowing tide which would soon
+    cover the lagoon from one shore to the other with swarms of
+    young bonito, as they swam about in search of such places as
+    that in which we were now about to begin fishing.</p>
+
+    <p>Each man had baited his hook with the third of an
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    &#8212;at this stage of their life about four inches long and
+    exactly the colour and shape of a young mackerel&#8212;and
+    within five minutes after ""
+    <i>Tu'u tau kafa</i>
+
+    !" ("Let go lines!") had been called out several of the canoes
+    around our own began to pull up fish&#8212;four to six
+    pounders. I was fishing with a white cotton line, with two
+    hooks, and Mar&#232;ko with the usual native gear&#8212;a
+    hand-made line of hibiscus bark with a barbless hook made from
+    a long wire nail, with its point ground fine and well-curved
+    inwards. We both struck fish at the same moment, and I knew by
+    the zigzag pull that I had two. Up they came
+    together&#8212;three spotted beauties about eighteen inches in
+    length and weighing over 5 lbs. each. Then I found the
+    advantage of the native style of hook; Mar&#232;ko simply put
+    his left thumb and forefinger into the fish's eye, had his hook
+    free in a moment, had baited,
+<!-- Page 60 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page055" name="page055">[pg 55]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    lowered again and was pulling up another before I had succeeded
+    in freeing even my first hook which was firmly fixed in the
+    fish's gullet, out of sight. I soon put myself on a more even
+    footing by cutting off the small one and a half inch hooks I
+    had been using and bending on two thick and long-shanked four
+    inchers. These answered beautifully, as although the barbs
+    caused me some trouble, their stout shanks afforded a good grip
+    and leverage when extracting them from the hard and
+    keen-toothed jaws of the struggling fish. Then, too, I had
+    another advantage over my companions; I was wearing a pair of
+    seaboots which effectually protected my feet from either the
+    terrible fins or the teeth of the fish in the bottom of the
+    canoe.</p>
+
+    <p>I had caught my eighth fish, when an outcry came from a
+    canoe near us, as a young man who was seated on the for'ard
+    thwart rose to his feet and began hauling in his line, which
+    was standing straight up and down, taut as an iron bar, the
+    canoe meanwhile spinning round and round although the steersman
+    used all his efforts to keep her steady.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is it, Tuluia?" called out fifty voices at once. "A
+    shark?"</p>
+
+    <p>"My mother's bones!" said old Viliamu with a laugh of
+    contempt. "'Tis an eel, and Tuluia, who was asleep, has let it
+    twist its tail around a piece of coral. May he lose it for his
+    stupidity."</p>
+
+    <p>We all ceased fishing to watch, and half a dozen men began
+    jeering at the lad, who was too excited to heed them. Old
+    Viliamu, who was in the next canoe, looked down, and then cried
+    out that he could see the
+<!-- Page 61 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page056" name="page056">[pg 56]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    eel, which had taken several turns of its body around a thick
+    branch of growing coral.</p>
+
+    <p>"His head is up," he called out to the youth, "but you
+    cannot move him, he has too many turns in and out among the
+    coral." Then paddling up alongside he again looked at the
+    struggling creature, then felt the line which was vibrating
+    with the tension. Stepping out of his own craft into that of
+    the young man, the line was placed in his hands without an inch
+    of it being payed out, for once one of these giant eels can get
+    his head down he will so quickly twine the line in and out
+    among the rugged coral that it is soon chafed through, if of
+    ordinary thickness. But the ancient knew his work well, as we
+    were soon to see. Taking a turn of the line well up on his
+    forearm and grasping it with his right a yard lower down, he
+    waited for a second or two, then suddenly bent his body till
+    his face nearly touched the water, then he sprang erect and
+    with lightning-like rapidity began to haul in hand
+    <i>under</i>
+
+    hand
+    <a href="#footnote_12" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[12]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    amid loud cries of approval as the wriggling body of the eel
+    was seen ascending clear of the coral. The moment it reached
+    the surface, a second native, with unerring aim sent a spear
+    through it and then a blow or two upon the head with a club
+    carried for the purpose took all further fight out of the
+    creature, which was then lifted out of the water and dropped
+    into the canoe. Here the end of its tail was quickly split open
+    and we saw no more of him for the time being.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 62 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page057" name="page057">[pg 57]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    To capture an eel so soon was looked upon as a lucky omen, to
+    have lost it would have been a presage of ill-fortune for the
+    rest of the day, and the incident put every one in high good
+    humour. By this time the tide was flowing over the flatter
+    parts of the reef and young bonito could be seen jumping out of
+    the water in all directions. Immense bodies were, so I was
+    assured by the natives, now coming into the lagoon from the
+    sea, and would continue to do so till the tide turned, when
+    those in the passage, unable to face a six-knot current, would
+    be carried out again, to make another attempt later on.</p>
+
+    <p>By this time every canoe was hauling in large rock-cod
+    almost as quick as the lines could be baited, and the bottom of
+    our own craft presented a gruesome sight&#8212;a lather of
+    blood and froth and kicking fish, some of which were over 20
+    lbs. weight. Telling the two boys to cease fishing awhile and
+    stun some of the liveliest, I unthinkingly began to bale out
+    some of the ensanguined water, when a score of indignant voices
+    bade me cease. Did I want to bring all the sharks in the world
+    around us? I was asked; and old Viliamu, who was a sarcastic
+    old gentleman, made a mock apology for me&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"How should he know any better? The sharks of Tokelau have
+    no teeth, like the people there, for they too are eaters of
+    <i>fala</i>
+
+    ."</p>
+
+    <p>This evoked a sally of laughter, in which of course I
+    joined. I must explain that the natives of the Tokelau
+<!-- Page 63 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page058" name="page058">[pg 58]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Group, among whom I had lived, through constantly chewing the
+    tough drupes of the fruit of the
+    <i>fala</i>
+
+    (pandanus palm) wear out their teeth prematurely, and are
+    sometimes termed "toothless" by other natives of the South
+    Pacific. However, I was to have my own little joke at Viliamu's
+    expense later on.</p>
+
+    <p>Just at this time a sudden squall, accompanied by torrents
+    of rain, came down upon us from the eastward, and whilst
+    Mar&#232;ko and his boys kept us head to wind&#8212;none of the
+    canoes were anchored&#8212;I took the opportunity of getting
+    ready two of my own lines, each treble-hooked, for the boys.
+    Their own were old and rotten, and had parted so often that
+    they were now too short to be of use, and, besides that, the
+    few remaining hooks of soft wire were too small. As soon as the
+    squall was over I showed Mar&#232;ko what I had done. He nodded
+    and smiled, but said I should try and break off the
+    barbs&#8212;his boys did not understand them as well as
+    native-made hooks. This was quickly accomplished with a heavy
+    knife, and the youngsters began to haul up fish two and three
+    at a time at such a rate that the canoe soon became deep in the
+    water outside and very full inside.</p>
+
+    <p>"A few more, Mar&#232;ko," I said, "and then we'll go
+    ashore, unload, and come back again. I want to tease that old
+    man."</p>
+
+    <p>We caught all we could possibly carry in another quarter of
+    an hour, and I was confident that our take exceeded that of any
+    other canoe. This was because the natives would carefully watch
+    their stone sinkers descend, and use every care to keep them
+    from being
+<!-- Page 64 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page059" name="page059">[pg 59]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    entangled in the coral, whilst my line, which had a 12 oz.
+    leaden sinker, would plump quickly to the bottom in the midst
+    of the hungry fish; consequently, although I lost some hooks by
+    fouling and now and then dragged up a bunch of coral, I was
+    catching more fish than any one else. And I was not going to
+    let my reputation suffer for the sake of a few hooks. So we
+    coiled up our lines on the outrigger platform, and taking up
+    our paddles headed shoreward, taking care to pass near
+    Viliamu's canoe. He hailed me and asked me for a pipe of
+    tobacco.</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall give it to you when we return," I said.</p>
+
+    <p>"When you return! Why, where are you going?" he asked.</p>
+
+    <p>"On shore, you silly old woman! I have been showing these
+    boys how to fish for
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    , and we go because the canoe is sinking. When we return these
+    two
+    <i>tamariki</i>
+
+    (infants) shall show
+    <i>you</i>
+
+    how to fish now that they have learnt from me."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a loud laugh at this, and as the old man took the
+    jest very good-naturedly I brought up alongside, showed him our
+    take, and gave him a stick of tobacco. The astonishment of
+    himself and his crew of three at the quantity of fish we had
+    afforded me much satisfaction, though I could not help feeling
+    that our luck was not due to my own skill alone.</p>
+
+    <p>Returning to the islets we were just in time to escape two
+    fierce squalls, which lasted half an hour and raised such a sea
+    that the remaining canoes began to follow us, as they were
+    unable to keep on the ground. During our absence the women and
+    children
+<!-- Page 65 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page060" name="page060">[pg 60]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    had been most industrious; the weather-worn, dilapidated huts
+    had been made habitable with freshly-plaited
+    <i>kapaus</i>
+
+    &#8212;coarse mats of green coconut leaves, the floors covered
+    with clean white pebbles, sleeping mats in readiness, and heaps
+    of young drinking nuts piled up in every corner, whilst outside
+    smoke was arising from a score of ground ovens in which taro
+    and puraka were being cooked, together with bundles of
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    wrapped in leaves.</p>
+
+    <p>Etiquette forbade Mar&#232;ko and myself counting our fish
+    until the rest of the party returned, although the women had
+    taken them out of the canoe and laid them on the beach, where
+    the pouring rain soon washed them clean and showed them in all
+    their shining beauty. Among them were two or three
+    parrot-fish&#8212;rich carmine, striped with bands of bright
+    yellow, boneless fins, and long protruding teeth in the upper
+    jaw showing out from the thick, fleshy lips; and one
+    <i>afulu</i>
+
+    &#8212;a species of deep-water sand mullet with purple scales
+    and yellow fins.</p>
+
+    <p>Whilst awaiting the rest of the canoes I drew the teacher
+    into our hut and pressed him to take some whisky. He was wet,
+    cold, and shivering, but resolutely declined to take any. "I
+    should like to drink a little," he said frankly, "but I must
+    not. I cannot drink it in secret, and yet I must not set a bad
+    example. Do not ask me, please. But if you like to give some to
+    the old men do so, but only a very little." I did do so. As
+    soon as the rest of the party landed I called up four of the
+    oldest men and gave each of them a stiff nip. They were all
+    nude to the waist, and like all
+<!-- Page 66 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page061" name="page061">[pg 61]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Polynesians who have been exposed to a cold rain squall, were
+    shivering and miserable. After each man had taken his nip and
+    emitted a deep sigh of satisfaction I observed that hundreds of
+    old white men saved their lives by taking a glass of spirits
+    when they were wet through&#8212;they had to do so by the
+    doctor's orders.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is true," said one old fellow; "when men grow old, and
+    the rain falls upon them it does not run off their skins as it
+    would from the smooth skins of young men. It gets into the
+    wrinkles and stays there. But when the belly is warmed with
+    grog a man does not feel the cold."</p>
+
+    <p>"True," I said gravely, as I poured some whisky out for
+    myself; "true, quite true, my dear friends. And in these
+    islands it is very bad for an old man to be exposed to much
+    rain. That is why I am disturbed in my mind. See, there is
+    Mar&#232;ko, your minister. He, like you, is old; he is wet and
+    cold. And he shivers. And he will not take a mouthful of this
+    <i>rom</i>
+
+    because he fears scandal. Now if he should become ill and die I
+    should be a disgraced man. This
+    <i>rom</i>
+
+    is now not
+    <i>rom</i>
+
+    ; it is medicine. And Mar&#232;ko should take some even as you
+    have taken it&#8212;to keep away danger."</p>
+
+    <p>The four old fellows arose to the occasion. They talked
+    earnestly together for a minute, and then formed themselves
+    into a committee, requested me to head them as a deputation
+    with the whisky, and then waited upon their pastor, who was
+    putting on a dry shirt in another hut. I am glad to say that
+    under our united
+<!-- Page 67 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page062" name="page062">[pg 62]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    protests he at last consented to save his life, and felt much
+    better.</p>
+
+    <p>Presently the women announced that the ovens were ready to
+    be opened. As soon as the fish were counted, and the rain
+    having ceased, we all gathered round the canoes and watched
+    each one emptied of its load. As I imagined, our party had
+    taken the most fish, and not only the most, but the heaviest as
+    well. Mar&#232;ko added to my blushing honours by informing the
+    company that as a fisherman and a knowledgable man generally I
+    justified his brother minister's opinion and would prove an
+    acquisition to the community. We then inspected the first eel
+    caught, and a truly huge creature it was, quite nine feet in
+    length, and in girth at its thickest part, as near as I could
+    guess with a piece of line, thirty inches. The line with which
+    it was caught was made of new four-stranded coir-cinnet, as
+    thick as a stout lead pencil, and the hook a piece of 3/6 or
+    1/2 inch iron with a 6-inch shank, once used as a fish spear,
+    without a barb! The natives seemed much pleased at the interest
+    displayed, and told me that sometimes these eels grew to
+    <i>elua gafa</i>
+
+    (
+    <i>i.e.</i>
+
+    , two fathoms), but were seldom caught, and asked me if I had
+    tackle strong enough for such. Later on I showed them a
+    27-stranded American cotton line 100 fathoms long, with a
+    4-inch hook, curved in the shank, as thick as a pencil, and
+    "eyed" for a twisted wire snooding. They had never seen such
+    beautiful tackle before, and were loud in their expressions of
+    admiration, but thought the line too thin for a very heavy
+    fish. I told them that at Nanomaga I had caught
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    (a nocturnal feeding
+<!-- Page 68 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page063" name="page063">[pg 63]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    fish of great size) in over sixty fathoms with that same
+    line.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is true," said one of them politely, "we were told
+    that you and Tiaki (one Jack O'Brien, an old trader) of
+    Funafuti have caught many
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    with your long lines; but the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    is a weak fish even when he is a fathom long. And as he comes
+    up he grows weaker and weaker, and sometimes he bursts open
+    when he comes to the surface. Now if a big eel&#8212;an eel two
+    fathoms long&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>"If he was three fathoms long he could not break this line,"
+    I replied positively.</p>
+
+    <p>They laughed and told me that when I hooked even a small
+    eel, one half a fathom in length, I would change my
+    opinion.</p>
+
+    <p>Soon after our midday meal was over, and we were preparing
+    to return to our fishing-ground with an ample supply of fresh
+    bait, the sky to windward became black and threatening, and
+    through the breaks in the long line of palms on the weather
+    side of the island, which permitted the horizon to be viewed,
+    we could see that a squall of unusual violence was coming. All
+    the canoes were at once hauled up on the lee-side of the
+    islets, the huts were secured by ropes as quickly as possible,
+    and every one hurried under shelter. In a few minutes the wind
+    was blowing with astonishing fury, and the air was full of
+    leaves, sticks, and other
+    <i>d&#233;bris</i>
+
+    , whilst the coco-palms and other trees on the islets seemed
+    likely to be torn up by the roots. This lasted about ten
+    minutes. Then came a sudden lull, followed by a terrific and
+    deafening downpour of rain;
+<!-- Page 69 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page064" name="page064">[pg 64]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    then more wind, another downpour, and the sun was out
+    again!</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as the squall was over, I walked round to the
+    weather side of the islet with some children. We found the
+    beach covered with some thousands of
+    <i>atuli</i>
+
+    and beautiful little garfish which had been driven on shore by
+    the force of the wind. We were soon joined by women carrying
+    baskets, which they filled with fish and carried back to the
+    camp. On returning, we again launched the canoes and started
+    off again&#8212;to meet with some disappointment, for although
+    the
+    <i>gatala</i>
+
+    still bit freely and several eels were also taken, some scores
+    of the small, pestilent, lagoon sharks were swimming about and
+    played havoc with our lines. These torments are from two to
+    four feet in length, and their mouths, which are quite out of
+    proportion to their insignificant size, are set with rows of
+    teeth of razor-like keenness. The moment a baited hook was seen
+    one of these little wretches would dart at it like lightning,
+    and generally bit the line through just above the hook. So
+    quick were they, that one could seldom even feel a tug unless
+    the hook got fast in their jaws. Taking off my sinker, and
+    bending on a big hook with a wire snood, I abandoned myself to
+    their destruction, and as fast as I hauled one alongside it was
+    stunned, cut into three or four pieces, and thrown overboard to
+    be devoured by its fellows. Many of the Ellice and Tokelau
+    islanders regard these young sharks as a delicacy, as their
+    flesh is very tender, and has not the usual unpleasant smell.
+    In one of these young sea lawyers we found no less than
+<!-- Page 70 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page065" name="page065">[pg 65]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    five hooks, with pieces of line attached; these were duly
+    restored to their owners.</p>
+
+    <p>Another two hours passed, during which we had fairly good
+    sport, then the rain began to fall so heavily that we gave up
+    for the day. We spent the first part of the evening in the
+    huts, eating, smoking, and talking, and overhauling our tackle
+    for the next day. It had been intended that about midnight we
+    should all go crayfishing in the shallow waters along the shore
+    of the islets, but this idea had to be abandoned in consequence
+    of the rain having soaked the coco palms&#8212;the dead
+    branches of which are rolled and plaited into a cylindrical
+    form and used as torches. The method of catching crayfish is
+    very simple: a number of men, each carrying a
+    <i>kaulama</i>
+
+    torch about 6 feet in length in the left hand, and a small
+    scoop net in the right, walk waist-high through the water; the
+    crayfish, dazed by the brilliant light, are whipped up into the
+    nets and dropped into baskets carried by the women and children
+    who follow. They can only be caught on dark, moonless
+    nights.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>When we returned to the village our spoils included besides
+    a great number of fish, a few turtle and some young frigate
+    birds. The latter were captured for the purpose of being tamed.
+    I made many subsequent visits to the two islets, sometimes
+    alone and sometimes with my native friends, and on each
+    occasion I left these lovely little spots with a keen feeling
+    of regret, for they are ideal resting-places to him who
+    possesses a love of nature and the soul of a fisherman.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 71 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page066" name="page066">[pg 66]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='Mrs_MacLaggans_quotBillyquot'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>Mrs. MacLaggan's "Billy"</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>When Tom Denison was quite a young man he was earning a not
+    too dishonest sort of a living as supercargo of a leaky old
+    ketch owned by Mrs. Molly MacLaggan of Samoa, which in those
+    days was the Land of Primeval Wickedness and Original and
+    Imported Sin, Strong Drink, and Loose Fish generally. Captain
+    "Bully" Hayes also lived in Samoa; his house and garden
+    adjoined that of Mrs. MacLaggan, and at the back there was a
+    galvanised iron cottage, inhabited by a drunken French
+    carpenter named Leger, whose wife was a full-blooded negress,
+    and made kava for Denison and "Bully" every evening, and used
+    to beat Billy MacLaggan on the head with a pole about six times
+    a day, and curse him vigorously in mongrel Martinique French.
+    Billy MacLaggan was Mrs. Molly's male goat, and as notorious in
+    Samoa as Bully Hayes himself.</p>
+
+    <p>I want to try and tell this story as clearly as possible,
+    but there are so many people concerned, and so many things
+    which really happened together, though each one seemed to come
+    before the other a little and try and get into the general
+    jumble, and
+<!-- Page 72 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page067" name="page067">[pg 67]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    every one was so confused, some fatuous people blaming the
+    goat, and some Denison, who was generally disliked by the
+    Germans, while Mrs. Molly said it was caused by the man with
+    the bucket of milk, and Captain Hayes who had bribed him to do
+    it, and nearly caused bloodshed, as the German officer who was
+    insulted by Hayes had shot a lot of people in duels, or if he
+    had not shot them he had stuck his sword into them in fifteen
+    places, more or less.</p>
+
+    <p>Now let me explain: First of all there was Mrs. Molly, who
+    was the hostess; then there was Hamilton, the Apia pilot and
+    his wife; the manager of the big German firm at Matafale (he
+    wore gold spectacles, and was very fond of Mrs. Molly, who was
+    a widow); then there was Bully Hayes, and old Coe the American
+    consul, and young Denison; all these were some of the local
+    guests, and lived in Samoa, the rest were officers from a
+    German man-of-war lying in port, and the usual respectable town
+    loafers. Then there were Leger, the bibulous carpenter; '
+    <i>Liza,</i>
+
+    his black wife; a white policeman named Thady O'Brien, and a
+    loafing scoundrel of a Samoan named Mataiasi, called "Matty"
+    for brevity, who was the public flogger, and milked Mrs.
+    MacLaggan's herd of seven imported Australian cows; and lastly
+    the goat, and about thirty or forty of Bully Hayes's crew, and
+    as many Samoans, who came to look at the dancing and see what
+    they could steal, Leger and his wife and the policeman and the
+    town flogger had charge of the refreshment tables, which for
+    the sake of coolness had been laid out upon the wide, back
+    verandah,
+<!-- Page 73 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page068" name="page068">[pg 68]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and handsomely decorated with pot plants and flags from the
+    man-of-war, and blanc-manges and jellies, and tipsy cake, and
+    cold roast pigeons and chickens were lying around as if they
+    weren't worth two cents.</p>
+
+    <p>The big wholesale store, which formed part of Mrs. Molly's
+    house and establishment, made a fine ballroom. All the barrels
+    of whisky and Queensland rum, and the cases of lager beer and
+    Holland's gin, had been stowed neatly on each side, and covered
+    over with flags and orange blossoms by Denison and Bully Hayes
+    and his men, and the orange blossoms killed the smell of the
+    rum so much that strangers would have thought it was
+    sherry.</p>
+
+    <p>Everything went on beautifully for the first two hours, and
+    then Mrs. Molly asked Denison to take out a very pretty young
+    half-caste lady and get her a drink of milk. When they reached
+    the side table where the milk should have been, they found it
+    all gone; but O'Brien the policeman said that Mataiasi had just
+    started off to milk another cow.</p>
+
+    <p>Just then Hayes came out to the refreshment tables with a
+    lady on his arm. She was thirsty, and so "Bully" opened a large
+    bottle of champagne, and she and he and Denison and the young
+    half-caste lady drank it; then they drank another, and all went
+    oft together to see Mataiasi milking the cow, which was tied up
+    to a coconut tree just outside the fence. The cow was a yellow
+    cow, and was standing very quietly, and just beside her Billy
+    MacLaggan (who caused all this trouble) was lying down, working
+    his jaws to and
+<!-- Page 74 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page069" name="page069">[pg 69]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    fro and making curious, snorting sounds in the bright and
+    gorgeous moonlight. I forgot to say that Wm. MacLaggan was the
+    largest and ugliest goat ever known to the memory of man, and
+    had been taught every vice and wickedness any goat could be
+    taught, and it is as natural for a goat to imbibe sin as it is
+    for him to eat a cactus, or a hedgehog, or a tract.</p>
+
+    <p>Hayes addressed the goat by his Christian name, and asked
+    him how he did, and Billy looked at Hayes for a second or two
+    out of his green, sharky eyes, then he rose in a dignified
+    manner, and came over to him to be scratched under the chin.
+    Then he blew himself out, snorted, and rubbed his horns against
+    the captain's knee: and Hayes remarked to Denison that the poor
+    beggar wanted a drink, and proposed to give him a "proper
+    one."</p>
+
+    <p>The goat knew perfectly well what "drink" meant, and made
+    his vicious tail quiver; then he followed them back to the
+    house, and stood at the foot of the steps waiting for Hayes and
+    Tom to come out again.</p>
+
+    <p>On the other side of the courtyard was Mrs. MacLaggan's
+    laundry. The door was wide open and the place was in darkness,
+    and no one took any notice when presently Tom sauntered out of
+    the ballroom, picked up a large plateful of tipsy-cake, and,
+    being kind to animals, gave a piece to William, who followed
+    him into the laundry for the rest; then Hayes came in with a
+    quart bottle of champagne, shut the door and struck a light.
+    Then he opened the bottle of fizz and poured it out into a
+    deep, enamelled starching-dish, and Billy MacLaggan drank
+    thereof, and then raised his head,
+<!-- Page 75 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page070" name="page070">[pg 70]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    with his immoral-looking beard hanging in a sodden point like a
+    wet deck-swab, and asked for more. That is, he asked as well as
+    any Christian and civilised goat could ask, by standing up on
+    his hind legs like a circus-horse and making strange, unearthly
+    noises. Then he rammed his wicked old nose into the dish again,
+    and pushed it all round the room, trying to sop up more liquor,
+    which wasn't there, and trod on Denison's canvas-slippered
+    foot, and knocked over the little tin kerosene oil lamp which
+    was standing on the floor, and when Hayes, with loud and
+    blasphemous remarks grabbed at the ironing-blanket of the
+    laundry-table to extinguish the flames, he pulled the table
+    down on the top of Denison and himself and the goat and
+    everything, for the blanket was nailed on at the four corners,
+    and when he was down on his hands and knees, the goat being
+    exceedingly alarmed and half-drunk, and smelling his own hair
+    burning, put his head down and charged at the universe in
+    general, or anything else he could hit, and he hit Hayes fair
+    on the temple with a noise like a ship's mainmast going by the
+    board; then the people outside burst in the door, and the
+    creature, with a bull-like bellow, charged out among them, and
+    landed his bony head into the stomach of Mataiasi, who was
+    carrying the bucket of milk, and was afraid to put it down when
+    he saw him coming; then in some way the handle of the iron
+    bucket got on Billy MacLaggan's horns, which simply made him
+    thirst for gore, for he thought he was being made fun of
+    because he was in liquor. With the bucket swinging and
+    clattering and banging around,
+<!-- Page 76 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page071" name="page071">[pg 71]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    he made a dash up on the verandah, among the pretty muslin-clad
+    ladies and white-duck suited men, creating havoc and
+    destruction, and smelling of kerosene and burnt hair and
+    ancient goat, and uttering horrible, blood-curdling
+    <i>bah-h-h-s</i>
+
+    , till he got into the card-table corner, and mistaking the
+    wide glass window for an open door, he promptly jumped through
+    it, and fell with a shower of glass outside on to the verandah
+    again, where Thady O'Brien and the fat German with the
+    spectacles fell on him, and tried to hold him down, and the
+    spectacles were ground into dust and otherwise damaged, and
+    some of the ladies endeavouring to escape out of the hideous
+    <i>m&#233;l&#233;e</i>
+
+    fell with him, and then the goat struggled to his feet with the
+    bucket squashed flat against his forehead, and his horns
+    covered with lace, and tulle, and bits of kid gloves, and
+    planted one of his cloven forefeet into the shirt-front of a
+    German officer, and smashed his watch. Then with another roar
+    of defiance he burst through and disappeared into the
+    wilderness at the back of Mrs. MacLaggan's garden, where he was
+    followed by Leger, the drunken carpenter, and his wife, and
+    nineteen Samoans, all armed with rifles. The army fired at him
+    for two hours, and about midnight returned and reported him
+    riddled with bullets, whereupon Mrs. Molly, who was a little
+    hysterical at the awful mess and wreckage caused by the brute,
+    thanked them and gave them ten dollars.</p>
+
+    <p>Now it so happened that Billy MacLaggan was not killed at
+    all, for about two o'clock in the morning, as Bully Hayes and
+    Tom Denison were sitting on the
+<!-- Page 77 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page072" name="page072">[pg 72]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    verandah of the former's house at Matautu Point, drinking
+    brandy and soda, and dabbing arnica bandages on their various
+    contusions, Pilot Hamilton hailed them from the front gate. He
+    had just left the dance with his wife, and was quite
+    sober&#8212;for Samoa. He asked them to come on with him to his
+    place, as Billy MacLaggan, he said, was lying down in Mrs.
+    Hamilton's kitchen, and seemed poorly, and that he hoped Hayes
+    would forgive the poor thing, which was only a dumb animal. So
+    Hayes and Denison went and saw William, who was now sober and
+    looked sorry. They dressed his wounds, and Tom Denison took him
+    on board early in the morning, intending to take him to sea
+    till the memory of his misdeeds had toned down a bit, for Billy
+    was a great institution in Samoa, and had many friends. Hardly
+    a white man in the place, no matter how hard up he was, but
+    would stand Billy a bottle of lager or a chew of tobacco. (I
+    forgot to mention that Billy would drink anything and chew
+    anything, except cigarettes, at which he snorted with
+    contempt.) Now Denison's little vessel was lying quite near the
+    German man-of-war, and was to sail next day for the Solomons if
+    the captain was sober, and he (Denison) had a lot of work to do
+    to get the ship ready, and whilst he was poring over accounts
+    in the cabin about noon, a boat ran alongside and Bully Hayes
+    came into the cabin.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where's Billy?" he said. "Quick, get him into my boat at
+    once. There's a search-party coming on board, and the widow is
+    going to give you the dirty kick-out, Tom Denison. There's been
+    the devil to
+<!-- Page 78 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page073" name="page073">[pg 73]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    pay over that cursed goat, but I'm going to save his life all
+    the same. But if she does sack you, you can come to me for a
+    berth."</p>
+
+    <p>Billy, who was placidly eating bananas on the main deck, was
+    at once seized and hoisted over the side into Hayes's boat,
+    which shoved off, leaving Hayes on board to explain things to
+    Tom.</p>
+
+    <p>It seemed that when the fat German manager&#8212;the man
+    with spectacles&#8212;I mean the man who had the spectacles
+    until Billy MacLaggan came in&#8212;the man who was courting
+    Mrs. Molly&#8212;fell on the top of the goat, some other man
+    trod on his face, and Leger (who was not sober enough to tell
+    one person from another) said that he saw Tom Denison do it.
+    Seven natives, male and female, swore that at the time alleged
+    Tom was out on the beach bathing his crushed toe in the salt
+    water, and using solemn British oaths; but Leger, who disliked
+    Denison, who had once kicked him overboard violently for being
+    drunk, not only stuck to the story, but said that Hayes and Tom
+    had set the goat on fire on purpose to break up the dance and
+    cause annoyance to the Germans present; also he vaguely hinted
+    that they, Denison and Hayes, would have driven the seven cows
+    into the ballroom but couldn't find them. Then Mrs. MacLaggan
+    promised the fat man to sack Denison on the following morning,
+    and at midnight, as I have said, word was brought in that Billy
+    had been shot. But about ten in the morning Leger heard from
+    some native that the goat was as well as ever, and on board
+    Denison's vessel, and being a mean, spiteful little hound, off
+    he trotted to the
+<!-- Page 79 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page074" name="page074">[pg 74]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    German manager, and said that Captain Hayes and Mr. Denison had
+    rescued the creature. At that very moment the manager was
+    talking to some German officers, one of whom was the man whose
+    watch had been smashed, and as every German in Samoa hated
+    Hayes most fervently, it was at once concluded that Hayes had
+    trained, or suborned, or bribed, or corrupted the goat to do
+    it. So a young lieutenant went and called upon Hayes, and
+    demanded satisfaction for his friend, and Hayes was exceedingly
+    rude to him, but said that if the man with the broken watch
+    liked to meet Billy MacLaggan with his own weapons, and fight
+    him in a goatsmanlike manner, for fifty dollars a side, he
+    (Hayes) would put up Billy's fifty. Then the lieutenant asked
+    for a written apology for his friend, and Hayes said that Billy
+    couldn't write, and, anyway, he was Mrs. Molly's goat. If the
+    man with the smashed nickel wanted an apology, why the blazes
+    didn't he approach Mrs. MacLaggan? he asked.</p>
+
+    <p>Whilst Hayes was telling all this to Tom, pulling his thick
+    beard and laughing loudly, as they paced the little vessel's
+    deck, the search-party came on board to recover the goat. The
+    leader bore a letter from Mrs. MacLaggan to Tom, informing him
+    that his services as supercargo were no longer required, also
+    that he could come ashore at once and be paid off, as his
+    conduct was heartless, and the consuls said it might lead to
+    serious complications, as it had been done with intent to
+    insult the citizens of a friendly nation, one of whom, as he
+    was aware, had made the natives cut
+<!-- Page 80 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page075" name="page075">[pg 75]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    down the price of copra half a cent. Under these circumstances,
+    &amp;c.</p>
+
+    <p>Tom grinned and showed the letter to Hayes. Then he turned
+    to the mate.</p>
+
+    <p>"I've got the sack, Waters. You're in charge of this rotten,
+    filthy old hooker now until the old man is sober."</p>
+
+    <p>He packed up his traps, went ashore, drew his money from
+    Mrs. MacLaggan's cashier, and bade him goodbye.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where's the goat, Tom?"</p>
+
+    <p>"On board Bully Hayes' ship. His crool, crool mistress shall
+    see him no more! Never more shall his plaintive call to his
+    nannies resound o' nights among the sleeping palm-groves of the
+    Vaisigago Valley; never&#8212;&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>The cashier jumped up out of his chair and seized the
+    dismissed supercargo by the collar.</p>
+
+    <p>"Stop that bosh, you rattlebrained young ass, and come and
+    take a farewell drink."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never more will he butt alike the just and the unjust, the
+    fat and bloated German merchant nor the herring-gutted Yankee
+    skipper, nor the bare&#8212;ah&#8212;um&#8212;legged Samoan,
+    nor the gorgeous consul in the solar topee. Gone is the glory
+    of Samoa with Billy MacLaggan. Goodbye for the present, Wade,
+    old man&#8212;I am not so proud of my new dignity&#8212;I am to
+    be supercargo of the brig
+    <i>Rona</i>
+
+    &#8212;as to refuse to drink with you, though you are but a
+    cashier. And give my farewell to the widow, and tell her that I
+    bear her no ill-will, for I leave a dirty little tub of a
+    cockroach-
+<!-- Page 81 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page076" name="page076">[pg 76]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    infested ketch for a swagger brig, where I shall wear white
+    suits every day and feel that peace of mind which&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, do dry up, you young beggar," said the good-natured
+    cashier, whose laughter proved so infectious that Tom joined
+    in.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come then, Wade, just another ere we part."</p>
+
+    <p>Now as these two were drinking in the cashier's office it
+    happened that Thady O'Brien, the policeman (he was chief of the
+    municipal police, and fond of drink) saw them, and invited
+    himself to join them and also to express his sorrow at
+    Denison's "misfortune," as he called it, for Denison was a
+    lovable sort of youth, and often gave him drink on board. So
+    they all sat down, Wade in the one chair, and Tom and the
+    policeman on the table, and had several more drinks, and just
+    then Mrs. MacLaggan came to the door, holding a note in her
+    hand. She bowed coldly to Tom, whose three stiff drinks of
+    brandy enabled him to give her a reproachful glance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Captain Hayes wants to buy one or two of the nanny-goats,
+    to take away with him to Ponap&#233;, Mr. Wade," she said. "I
+    shall be glad to let him have them. Please tell Leger and
+    Mataiasi to catch them at once."</p>
+
+    <p>Then Mrs. MacLaggan went away, and Tom and O'Brien went down
+    to the jetty to wait for a boat to take them on board&#8212;Tom
+    to his duty, and O'Brien because he was thirsty again.
+    Presently Leger and Mataiasi and a large concourse of native
+    children came down, carrying two female goats, who, imagining
+    they
+<!-- Page 82 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page077" name="page077">[pg 77]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    were to be cast into the sea, began to cry with great violence,
+    and were immediately answered in a deep voice by Billy
+    MacLaggan from over the water, whereupon Leger started to run
+    off and tell Mrs. MacLaggan that Billy was alive, and on board
+    the
+    <i>Rona</i>
+
+    , and Denison put out his foot and tripped him, and was at once
+    assailed by Leger's black wife, who hit him on the head with a
+    stick, and then herself was pushed backwards off the jetty into
+    the water by Mr. O'Brien, taking several children and one of
+    the goats with her, and in less than two minutes there was as
+    pretty a fight as ever was seen. Several native police ran to
+    help their superior officer, and a lot of dogs came with them;
+    the dogs bit anybody and everybody indiscriminately, but most
+    of them went for Leger and Denison, who were lying gasping
+    together on the jetty, striving to murder each other; then a
+    number of sailors belonging to a whaleship joined in, and tried
+    to massacre or otherwise injure and generally maltreat the
+    policemen, and by the time the boat from the
+    <i>Rona</i>
+
+    came to the rescue the jetty looked like a battlefield, and one
+    goat was drowned, and the new supercargo was taken on board to
+    have his excoriations attended to, for he was in a very bad
+    state.</p>
+
+    <p>That is the end of the story, which I have told in a
+    confused sort of away, I admit, because there are so many
+    things in it, though I could tell a lot more about the
+    adventures of Billy MacLaggan, after he went to sea with
+    Captain Bully Hayes.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 83 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page078" name="page078">[pg 78]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='An_Island_Memory'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>An Island Memory</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+    <p>From early dawn wild excitement had prevailed in the great
+    native village on the shores of Port Lele, and on board two
+    ships which were anchored on the placid waters of the
+    land-locked harbour. As the fleecy, cloud-like mist which,
+    during the night, had enveloped the forest-clad spurs and
+    summit of Mont Buache, was dispelled by the first airs of the
+    awakened trade wind and the yellow shafts of sunrise, a fleet
+    or canoes crowded with natives put off from the sandy beach in
+    front of the king's house, and paddled swiftly over towards the
+    ships, the captains of which only awaited their arrival to
+    weigh and tow out through the passage.</p>
+
+    <p>As the mist lifted, Cayse, the master of the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    of Sagharbour, stepped briskly up on the poop, and hailed the
+    skipper of the other vessel, a small, yellow-painted barque of
+    less than two hundred tons.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you ready, Captain Ross?"</p>
+
+    <p>"All ready," was the answer; "only waiting for the
+    military," and then followed a hoarse laugh.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 84 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page079" name="page079">[pg 79]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Cayse, a little, grizzled, and leathern-faced man of fifty,
+    replied by an angry snarl, then turned to his mate, who stood
+    beside him awaiting his orders.</p>
+
+    <p>"Get these natives settled down as quickly as possible, Mr.
+    North, then start to heave-up and loose sails. I reckon we'll
+    tow out in an hour. The king will be here presently in his own
+    boat. Hoist it aboard."</p>
+
+    <p>North nodded in silence, and was just moving on to the main
+    deck, when Cayse stopped him.</p>
+
+    <p>"You don't seem too ragin' pleased this mornin', Mr. North,
+    over this business. Naow, as I told you yesterday, I admire
+    your feelin's on the subject, but I can't afford&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>The mate's eyes blazed with anger.</p>
+
+    <p>"And I tell you again that I won't have anything to do with
+    it. I know my duty, and mean to stick to it. I shipped for a
+    whaling voyage, and not to help savages to fight. Take my
+    advice and give it up. Money got in this way will do you no
+    good."</p>
+
+    <p>Cayse shifted his feet uneasily.</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't afford to sling away the chance of earnin' two or
+    three thousan' dollars so easy. An' you'll hev to do your duty
+    to me. Naow, look here&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>North raised his hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"That will do. I have said I will do my duty as mate, but
+    not a hand's turn will I take in such bloody work as you and
+    the skipper of that crowd of Sydney cut-throats and convicts
+    are going into for the sake of six thousand dollars."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I reckon we can do without you. Any
+<!-- Page 85 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page080" name="page080">[pg 80]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    one would think we was going piratin', instead of helping the
+    king of this island to his rights. Naow, just tell
+    me&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>Again the mate interrupted him.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am going for'ard to get the anchor up, and will obey all
+    your orders as far as the working of the ship is
+    concerned&#8212;nothing more."</p>
+
+    <p>An hour later the two vessels, their decks crowded with
+    three hundred savages, armed with muskets, spears, and clubs,
+    were towed out through the narrow, reef-bound passage, and with
+    the now freshening trade wind filling their sails, set a course
+    along the coast which before sunset would bring them to
+    Leass&#233;, on the lee side of the island. But presently, in
+    response to a signal from the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    , the whaler lay to; a boat put off from the smaller ship, and
+    Captain Ross came alongside, clambered over the bulwarks and
+    joined Cayse and the young king of Port Lele, who were awaiting
+    him on the poop, to discuss with him the plan of surprise and
+    slaughter of the offending people of Leass&#233;.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Nearly a week before the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    had run into Port Lele to refresh before proceeding westward
+    and northward to the Bonin Islands in pursuance of her cruise.
+    Charlik, the king, was delighted to see Cayse, for in the days
+    when his father was king the American captain had conveyed a
+    party of one hundred Strong's Islanders from Port Lele to
+    MacAskill's Island, landed them in his boats during the night,
+    and stood off and
+<!-- Page 86 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page081" name="page081">[pg 81]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    on till daylight, when they returned reeking from their work of
+    slaughter upon the sleeping people, and bringing with them some
+    scores of women and children as captives. For this service the
+    king had given Cayse half a ton of turtle-shell, and the
+    services of ten young men as seamen for as long a time as the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    cruised in the Pacific on that voyage. When Charlik's father
+    was dying, he called his head chiefs around him, and gave the
+    boy into their care with these words&#8212;"Here die I upon my
+    mat like a woman, long before my time, and to-morrow my spirit
+    will hear the mocking laughs of the men of M&#244;ut and
+    Leass&#233;, when they say, 'Sikra is dead; Sikra was but an
+    empty boaster.'"</p>
+
+    <p>Then his son spoke.</p>
+
+    <p>"Not many days shall they laugh. They shall be destroyed
+    all, all, all of them."</p>
+
+    <p>The king touched his son's hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"Those are good words. But be not too hasty. Wait till the
+    American comes again. He will help with his men and guns. But
+    he is a greedy man. Yet spare nothing; give him all the silver
+    and gold money I have stored by for his return, and all the
+    turtle-shell that can be gathered together. And let there be
+    not even one little child left in M&#244;ut or
+    Leass&#233;."</p>
+
+    <p>Charlik was a lad or seventeen when his savage old father
+    died, and for a year after his death he harried and distressed
+    his people by his exactions. All day long the men toiled at
+    making coconut oil, and at night time they watched along the
+    beaches for the
+<!-- Page 87 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page082" name="page082">[pg 82]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    hawk-bill turtle; the oil they put into huge butts, which stood
+    in the king's boat-sheds, and the costly turtle-shell was taken
+    by the young ruler and locked up in the seamen's chests which
+    lined the inside wall of the great council-house. And no man
+    durst now fire a musket at a wild pig, for powder and ball had
+    been made
+    <i>tapu</i>
+
+    &#8212;such things were given up to the chiefs, lest they might
+    be wasted, and every morning three young men climbed up the
+    rugged side of Mont Buache, to keep a look-out for the ship
+    whose captain would help their master to wreak a bloody
+    vengeance upon the rebellious people of Leass&#233;.</p>
+
+    <p>At the end of the sixteenth month of watching, a sail
+    appeared coming from the southward, and the watchers on the
+    mountain-top sped down to the king's house, and sinking upon
+    their knees in the courtyard of coral slabs, whispered their
+    news to one of the king's serving-men, who, with a musket in
+    his hand and a cutlass girt around his naked waist, stood
+    sentry before the youthful despot's sleeping-room.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good," said the king to Kanka, his head chief; "'tis surely
+    the American K&#233;sa,
+    <a href="#footnote_13" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[13]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    for this is the month in which he said he would return. Let the
+    women make ready a great feast, and launch my three boats, so
+    that if the wind fail, when the sun is high, they may help to
+    drag the ship into Lele."</p>
+
+    <p>Then came the sound of beating drums, and the long, mournful
+    note of the conch-shells calling the wild people together to
+    prepare for the ship. Turtle
+<!-- Page 88 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page083" name="page083">[pg 83]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    were lifted from their walled-in prison holes on the reef, hogs
+    were strangled, and the king's wives went hither and thither
+    among his slave women, bidding them hasten to kindle the ovens,
+    whilst children went out into the great canework cage, wherein
+    were hundreds of the king's wild pigeons, and seizing the
+    birds, began to pluck them alive.</p>
+
+    <p>An hour passed. Charlik, sitting in a European chair, was
+    watching the wild bustle and excitement around him in the
+    courtyard, when his eye fell on the three messengers, who, with
+    bent head and bended knees, were awaiting his further
+    commands.</p>
+
+    <p>Beckoning to a young, light-skinned woman, who stood near
+    him, he bade her bring him three of his best pearl-shell bonito
+    hooks. They were brought, and taking them from her, he threw
+    them to the men.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ye have watched well," he said. "There is thy reward. Now
+    go and eat and sleep."</p>
+
+    <p>With eyes sparkling with pleasure, the young men each took
+    up his precious gift, and with crouching forms crept slowly
+    over to the further side of the courtyard, where they were
+    waited upon by women with food.</p>
+
+    <p>Presently the fair young woman&#8212;his sister
+    S&#232;&#8212;returned to her brother's side.</p>
+
+    <p>"The ship is near," she said, and then her voice faltered;
+    "but it is not the ship of K&#233;sa. It is but a small ship,
+    and she hath but two boats. K&#233;sa's had five."</p>
+
+    <p>"What lies are these?" said the young savage fiercely. "Go
+    look again."</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 89 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page084" name="page084">[pg 84]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    The girl left him, to return a few minutes later with
+    grey-headed old Kanka, who in response to an inquiring look
+    from his master, bent his head and said slowly&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis a strange ship&#8212;one that never before have we
+    seen in Lele."</p>
+
+    <p>The youth made him no answer. He merely raised his arm and
+    pointed his finger at the three messengers.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then they have lied to me. Bring them here to me."</p>
+
+    <p>Kanka stepped over to where the fated men were sitting. They
+    rose at his behest, and crept over to the king; behind them, at
+    some invisible sign given by him, followed a man with a heavy
+    club of
+    <i>toa</i>
+
+    wood. The clamour which had filled the courtyard ceased, and
+    terrified silence fell. One by one the messengers knelt upon
+    the coral flags&#8212;no need for them to ask for mercy from
+    Charlik, the savage son of a bloodstained father. The bearer of
+    the club held the weapon knob downward, and watched the king's
+    face for the signal of death. He nodded, and then, one after
+    another of the men were struck and fell prone upon the stones.
+    With scowling eyes Charlik regarded them for a moment or two in
+    silence, then he turned unconcernedly away, as some of his
+    slaves came forward and carried the bodies out of sight.</p>
+
+    <p>Suddenly he sprang to his feet, as a loud, long cry, first
+    from a single throat, and then echoed and reechoed by a hundred
+    more, came upward from the beach.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 90 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page085" name="page085">[pg 85]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    A ship! A ship! Another ship! The ship of K&#233;sa!"</p>
+
+    <p>Bidding his sister and the old chief Kanka to come with him,
+    Charlik quickly left the house, and walking through a grove of
+    breadfruit trees, reached a spot from where he had a full view
+    of the open sea. There right in the passage was a small barque;
+    and, almost within hail, and just rounding the northern horn of
+    the reef was a larger vessel, one glance at which told Charlik
+    that it was the American whaler for which he had so long
+    waited. In less than an hour they were at anchor abreast of the
+    king's house, and the two captains were being rowed ashore.
+    They met on the beach. The master of the smaller vessel was a
+    tall, broad-shouldered man, armed with a pair of pistols and a
+    cutlass. Striding over the sand he held out his hand to the
+    American.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good day. My name's Ross, barque
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    , of Sydney, from the New Hebrides to Hong Kong with
+    sandalwood."</p>
+
+    <p>"Glad to meet ye. My name is Cayse, ship
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    , bound on a sperm whalin' cruise."</p>
+
+    <p>Further speech was denied them, for suddenly the thronging
+    and excited natives around them drew aside right and left as
+    Charlik, with a face beaming with smiles, came up to Cayse with
+    outstretched hand, and greeted him warmly in English. Then he
+    turned quickly to the Englishman and shook hands with him also,
+    and asked him from whence he came.</p>
+
+    <p>"From Sydney. I came here to get wood, water, and
+    provisions."</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 91 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page086" name="page086">[pg 86]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Good. You can get all you want. Have you muskets and bullets to
+    sell?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I can spare you some."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, that is good. I want plenty, plenty. Now come to my
+    house and eat and drink; then we can talk."</p>
+
+    <p>It was well on towards sunset before Charlik and Cayse had
+    finished their talk. Ross meanwhile had gone on board the
+    barque for some firearms which he was giving the king in
+    exchange for several boatloads of provisions. When he returned,
+    with two of his crew carrying six muskets, a keg of powder, and
+    a bag of bullets, Cayse met him on the threshold of the king's
+    house.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come inside, mister. The king wants to talk to you on a
+    matter of business. I reckon you an' me together can do what he
+    wants done. But jest come along with me first. I want to show
+    you the kind of fellow he is when he gets upset."</p>
+
+    <p>The master of the sandalwooder followed the American across
+    the wide courtyard to some native houses. Stopping in front of
+    one, from which the low murmur of women's voices, broken now
+    and then by a wailing cry, proceeded, he desired Ross to look
+    in through the doorway. A small fire of coconut shells was
+    burning in the centre of the room, and
+    <i>by</i>
+
+    its light Ross saw several women crouched round the bodies of
+    three men, performing the last offices for the dead. They
+    looked at the white strangers with apathetic indifference, but
+    ceased their labours whilst Ross bent down and
+<!-- Page 92 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page087" name="page087">[pg 87]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    examined the still faces. His scrutiny was brief, but it was
+    enough.</p>
+
+    <p>Cayse gave a sniggering laugh. "I reckon you'll feel sorter
+    startled, mister, when I tell you that you were the cause of
+    those men getting clubbed, hey?"</p>
+
+    <p>Ross frowned angrily. "What are you driving at? What the
+    devil had I to do with it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"On'y this. You see I'm the white-headed boy with this young
+    island cock, an' he's been expectin' to see the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    for quite a time. Your barque happened to heave in sight first,
+    an' these three fellows who were standin' mast-head watch up
+    thar on the mountain, came tearin' down an' reported that it
+    was my old hooker. Charlik bein' a most impatient young fellow,
+    had 'em clubbed on the spot; he should hev waited another five
+    minutes. Come on, he's ready to talk business with us now."</p>
+
+    <p>In the centre of the big council room Charlik, attended by
+    his sister, was seated upon a mat. A couple of brightly burning
+    ship's lanterns suspended from the beams overhead, revealed the
+    figures of a score of armed natives, seated with their backs to
+    the canework walls of the room; midway between them and the
+    young king were two seamen's chests, beside which crouched the
+    half-naked, tatooed form or old Kanka.</p>
+
+    <p>Followed by the sailors carrying the muskets, the two
+    captains walked over the soft, springy floor of mats, and
+    seated themselves facing the young man. His eye lit up at the
+    sight of the arms, and then he
+<!-- Page 93 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page088" name="page088">[pg 88]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    desired Ross to tell his men to withdraw. Then as the sound of
+    their footsteps died away, he looked at Cayse and said
+    briefly&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, cap&#232;n. You talk."</p>
+
+    <p>Cayse went into the subject at once.</p>
+
+    <p>"Captain Ross, do you want to earn three thousand
+    dollars?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't mind."</p>
+
+    <p>"Neither do I. Well, just listen. The king here has three
+    thousand dollars in cash and three thousand dollars' worth of
+    coconut ile and turtle-shell. Now, if you and I will help him
+    to do a bit of fightin' it's ours. The money and shell is here
+    in this room, the ile is in the sheds near by. If you agree,
+    the king will hand us over the money now, and we can ship the
+    ile in the morning."</p>
+
+    <p>Ross thought a moment, then he said suspiciously&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Why are you giving me a chance?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not from any feelin' of affection for you, mister,"
+    answered Cayse with his peculiar snarl, "but because I ain't
+    able to do the whole business myself&#8212;if I could I
+    wouldn't ask
+    <i>you</i>
+
+    to come in. Now, I noticed this mornin' that you carry a big
+    crew, and have six guns, and I reckon thet you hev to use 'em
+    sometimes in your business?"</p>
+
+    <p>Ross laughed grimly. "All of us sandalwooding ships carry a
+    few nine-pounders as well as plenty of small arms. We are
+    allowed to do so by the Governor of New South Wales."</p>
+
+    <p>"Just so. Well, now, listen. This island is
+<!-- Page 94 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page089" name="page089">[pg 89]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    governed by two chiefs; this one here, Charlik, has most
+    people, but the other lot, who live on the lee side of the
+    island, rebelled against his father more'n ten years ago.
+    They've had a good many fights, an' in the last one these Lele
+    people got badly whipped. Charlik is the proper king, but ever
+    since a white man named Ledyard went to live with the
+    Leass&#233; people, they've refused to pay tribute. This
+    Ledyard is the cause of all the trouble, and he has taught his
+    natives how to fight European fashion. There's only about six
+    hundred of 'em altogether&#8212;men, women, and
+    children&#8212;eh, Charlik?"</p>
+
+    <p>The young chief nodded in assent.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, by a bit of luck, news came up the other day by one of
+    Charlik's spies that Ledyard has gone away to Ponap&#233; in a
+    cutter he has built. It will take him two or three weeks to go
+    there and back, and now is the time for Charlik to wipe out old
+    scores&#8212;the Leass&#233; people won't stand much of a
+    chance agin' a night attack by three hundred of Charlik's
+    people. If Ledyard was there it would be different."</p>
+
+    <p>Ross soon made his decision. He was a man utterly without
+    pity, and Cayse who, while inciting others to slaughter for the
+    sake of his own gain, yet had some grains of compunction in his
+    nature, almost shuddered when the master of the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    laughed hoarsely and said&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a bargain&#8212;just the thing that my crowd could
+    tackle and carry through themselves. Two
+<!-- Page 95 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page090" name="page090">[pg 90]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    voyages ago me and my beauties wiped out every living soul on
+    one of the Cartaret's Islands. I'll tell you the yarn some day.
+    But look here, king, can't we make another deal about the women
+    and children. Let me keep as many of them as I have room for
+    aboard, and I'll pay for them in muskets and powder and
+    bullets."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you want with them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sell them to old Abba Dul, the king of the Pelews. I've
+    done business with him before."</p>
+
+    <p>Charlik called Kanka over to him, and the two spoke in low
+    tones. Then the young ruler of Lele shook his head.</p>
+
+    <p>"No. There must be but one left to live&#8212;the white
+    man's wife. Now we shall count this money."</p>
+
+    <p>The boxes were carried over directly under the rays of the
+    lamps and opened, the bags containing the money lifted out, the
+    coins counted, and then evenly divided between the two
+    wolves.</p>
+
+    <p>On the following morning the casks of oil were rolled down
+    to the beach and rafted off to the two ships, and before dawn,
+    on the fourth day, Ross and his fellow-ruffian sent word ashore
+    to the king that all was ready, and that he and his fighting
+    men could come on board at once and proceed on their dreadful
+    mission.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+<!-- Page 96 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page091" name="page091">[pg 91]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='CHAPTER_II'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+    <p>As the two captains and their ferocious young employer sat
+    on the snow-white poop of the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    and discussed the plan of attack, the ship and barque kept
+    closely together, so closely that North, who had not yet placed
+    foot on board the sandalwooder, had now an opportunity of
+    looking down upon her decks, and watching the actions of those
+    who manned her. A more ragged and desperate looking lot of
+    ruffians he had never seen in his life; and their wild, unkempt
+    appearance was in perfect accord with the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    herself, whose dirty, yellow sides were stained from stem to
+    stern with long streaks and broad patches of iron-rust. Aloft
+    she was in as equally a bad condition, and North and his
+    fellow-officers, used to the trimness and unceasing care of a
+    whaleship's sails and running gear, looked with contempt at the
+    disorder and neglect everywhere visible. On deck, however, some
+    attempt at setting things ship-shape were being made by the two
+    mates and boatswain, the six guns were being overhauled, and a
+    pile of muskets lying on the main hatch were being examined and
+    passed up to the poop one by one, to old Kanka, who was in
+    command of the contingent of Lele natives on board the barque.
+    Similar preparations with small arms were being made on board
+    the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    by her crew which, largely composed of Chilenos, Portuguese,
+    and Polynesians, had eagerly accepted the offer of twenty
+    dollars for
+<!-- Page 97 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page092" name="page092">[pg 92]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    each man for a few hours' fighting. North alone had spoken
+    against and tried to dissuade his fellow-officers from taking
+    any active part in the expedition, but his remonstrances fell
+    upon unheeding ears. The details of the scheme to surprise the
+    unsuspecting inhabitants of the two villages had filled him
+    with unutterable horror and indignation, and all sorts of wild
+    plans formed in his brain to prevent the accomplishment of the
+    cruel deed. For the consequences of such interference to
+    himself he cared nothing. He was alone in the world, and had no
+    thought beyond that of making enough money to enable him to one
+    day buy a ship of his own. Once, as he passed the trio on the
+    poop, and glanced at the smooth, olive-coloured features of the
+    young king, who, with anticipative zest, was fondling a rifle
+    which Ross had brought on board for him, he felt inclined to
+    whip a belaying-pin out of the rail and bring it crashing down
+    upon his skull. Had there been any other ship but the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    near, he would have left the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    that moment. But help was coming to his troubled mind.</p>
+
+    <p>An hour before sunset the two vessels ran into a little
+    harbour, then called Port Lottin, but now known as South
+    Harbour by the few wandering whalers which sometimes touch at
+    the island. Here, ere it became dark, the natives, with
+    fourteen of the
+    <i>Lucy May's</i>
+
+    crew under Ross, were landed. They were to march at early
+    morning, cross the mountain range which intervened between
+    South Harbour and Leass&#233;, and then, hidden by the dense
+    forest, await the appearance of the ships off the
+<!-- Page 98 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page093" name="page093">[pg 93]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    doomed villages on the following afternoon. The six
+    boats&#8212;two from the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    and four from the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    &#8212;were to pull ashore as soon as the ships were off
+    Leass&#233; and take up positions, three to the north and three
+    to the south, so as to cut off all who attempted to escape
+    along the beaches from the attack which would be made by Ross.
+    Charlik was to command one of the boat parties, Cayse the
+    other, and should any canoes with fugitives attempt to gain the
+    open sea, they were to be sunk by the
+    <i>Lucy May's</i>
+
+    guns, for she was to anchor in such a position that an escaping
+    canoe would have to pass within fifty yards of her.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Eight bells had struck, and North, who had declined to join
+    the captain and his fellow-officers at supper, was sitting in
+    his cabin smoking and listening to the soft hum of the surf on
+    the barrier reef a mile away. On deck all was quiet, only the
+    fourth mate and three of the hands were keeping watch, the rest
+    of the crew who were not turned in had gone ashore to witness a
+    dance given by King Charlik's warriors.</p>
+
+    <p>Suddenly he heard a footfall on the cabin deck, and then
+    some one said in a low voice&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"May I come in, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>North, recognising the voice as that of a young man named
+    Macy, his own harpooner, at once bade him enter.</p>
+
+    <p>Macy, a sunburnt, blue-eyed youth, closed the cabin door
+    behind him, and held up his finger to enjoin silence.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 99 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page094" name="page094">[pg 94]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    I've only just now heard, sir, that you will not take a hand in
+    this work which is going on. Neither will I, sir; for those
+    damned savages are going to kill all the poor women and
+    children. I've come to ask you what I'm to do if I'm ordered
+    away in the boat? My God! Mr. North, must we all be turned into
+    a gang of murderers like those fellows on the
+    <i>Lucy May!</i>
+
+    "</p>
+
+    <p>The officer shook the young seaman's hand. "I for one will
+    have no hand in it, my lad; and I wish there were more of us on
+    board of our way of thinking. I wish we could leave the ship. I
+    would rather die of thirst on the open ocean ... Macy, my lad,
+    will you stand to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Stand to you, sir! Aye, Mr. North. If you mean to take to
+    our boat, sir, I am with you."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," answered North in a whisper. "That, after all, would
+    only save us two from being mixed up in this murderous
+    business&#8212;I want to prevent it altogether. Have you heard
+    how far it is across the island to this place Leass&#233;?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Seven miles, sir, over the mountains."</p>
+
+    <p>"And twenty by the boats! Macy, I am determined to leave the
+    ship to-night, cut across the island, and save the poor people
+    from massacre. Will you come? We may pay for it with our
+    lives."</p>
+
+    <p>The harpooner raised his rough hand. "We must all die some
+    day, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>For some minutes they conversed in whispered tones; then
+    Macy slipped on deck, and North took his pistols from their
+    racks, filled his coat pockets
+<!-- Page 100 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page095" name="page095">[pg 95]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    with ammunition, and then followed him. His own boat was lying
+    astern.</p>
+
+    <p>Telling the cooper, who was the only one of the afterguard
+    on deck, that he was going ashore to look at the dance, and
+    that only Macy and another hand need come with him, North
+    ordered the boat to be hauled alongside. A quarter of an hour
+    later he and Macy stepped out upon the shore under the shadow
+    of a high bluff, and quite out of view from Ross and his party,
+    although the many camp-fires cast long lines of light across
+    the sleeping waters of the little harbour.</p>
+
+    <p>Informing the boat-keeper that they should return in a
+    couple of hours, the two men first walked along the beach in
+    the direction of the encampment. Then once out of sight from
+    the boat, they struck inland into a deep valley through which,
+    Macy said, a narrow track led up to the range, and then
+    downwards to the two villages. After a careful search the track
+    was found, and the bright stars shining through the canopy of
+    leaves overhead gave them sufficient light to pursue their way.
+    For two hours they toiled along through the silent forest,
+    hearing no sound except now and then the affrighted rush of
+    some startled wild boar, and, far distant, the dull cry of the
+    ever-restless breakers upon the coral reef. At last the summit
+    of the range was reached, and they sat down to rest upon the
+    thick carpet of fallen leaves which covered the ground. Here
+    North took a spirit-flask from his jacket, and Macy and he
+    drank in turns.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you know, sir," said Macy, as he returned
+<!-- Page 101 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page096" name="page096">[pg 96]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the flask to the officer, "that there's a white man living at
+    this village?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He's not there now, Macy. He's gone away to another island
+    in his cutter."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know that, sir. I've heard all about it from one of the
+    chaps on the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    . The man's name is Ledyard, and this young devil's-limb of a
+    king hates him like poison&#8212;for two reasons. One is, that
+    Ledyard, who settled in Leass&#233; a few years ago, taught the
+    people there how to use their muskets in a fight, when
+    Charlik's father tried to destroy them time and again; the
+    other is that his wife is a white woman&#8212;or almost a white
+    woman, a Bonin Island Portuguese&#8212;and Charlik means to get
+    her. When Ledyard comes back in his cutter he will walk into a
+    trap, and be killed as soon as he steps ashore."</p>
+
+    <p>North struck his hand upon the ground. "And to think that I
+    have sailed with such a villain as Cayse, who&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's not all. Ledyard has two children. Charlik has given
+    orders for them to be killed, as he says he only wants the
+    woman! Ross, I believe, wanted him to spare 'em, but the young
+    cut-throat said 'No.' I heard all this from two men&#8212;the
+    chap from the
+    <i>Lucy May</i>
+
+    and one of Charlik's fighting men, who speaks English and seems
+    to have a soft place in his heart for Ledyard."</p>
+
+    <p>The mate of the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    sprang to his feet. "The cold-blooded wretches! Come on, Macy.
+    We
+    <i>must</i>
+
+    get there in time."</p>
+
+    <p>For another two hours they made steady progress
+<!-- Page 102 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page097" name="page097">[pg 97]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    through the darkened forest aisles, and then as they emerged
+    out upon a piece of open country, they saw far beneath them the
+    gleaming sea. And here, amidst a dense patch of pandanus palms,
+    the path they had followed came to an end. Pushing their way
+    through the thorny leaves, which tore the skin from their hands
+    and faces, Macy exclaimed excitedly&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"We're all right, sir. I can see a light down there. It must
+    be a fire on the beach."</p>
+
+    <p>Heedless of the unknown dangers of the deep descent, and
+    every now and then tripping and falling over the roots of trees
+    and fallen timber, they again came out into the open, and
+    there, two hundred feet below them, they saw the high-peaked,
+    saddle-backed houses of Leass&#233; village standing clearly
+    out in the starlight. But at this point their further progress
+    was barred by a cliff, which seemed to extend for half a mile
+    on both sides of them. Cautiously feeling their way along its
+    ledge they sought in vain for a path.</p>
+
+    <p>"We must hail them, Macy. There will be sure to be plenty of
+    them who can speak a little English and show us the way to get
+    down."</p>
+
+    <p>Returning as quickly as possible to the spot immediately
+    over the village, the officer gave a long, loud hail.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>Below there, you sleepers!</i>
+
+    "</p>
+
+    <p>The hoarse, shrieking notes of countless thousands of
+    roosting sea-birds, as they rose in alarm from their perches in
+    the forest trees, mingled with the barking of dogs from the
+    village, and then came a wild cry of alarm from a human
+    throat.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 103 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page098" name="page098">[pg 98]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Waiting for a few moments till the clamour had somewhat
+    subsided, the two men again hailed in unison.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>Below there! Awake, you sleepers!</i>
+
+    "</p>
+
+    <p>Another furious outburst of yelping and
+    barking&#8212;through which ran the quavering of voices of the
+    affrighted natives&#8212;smote the stillness of the night. Then
+    the bright light of torches of coconut leaves flashed below,
+    nude figures ran swiftly to and fro among the houses, and then
+    came a deep-voiced answering hail in English&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>Hallo there! Who hails</i>
+
+    ?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Two white men," was the officer's quick reply. "We cannot
+    get down. Bear a hand with a torch; we have lost the track."
+    Then as something flashed across his mind, he added, "Who are
+    you? Are you a white man?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. I am Tom Ledyard."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank God for that! Send a light quickly. You and your
+    people are in deadly danger."</p>
+
+    <p>In a few minutes the waiting men saw the gleam of torches
+    amid the trees to their right, and presently a tall, bearded,
+    white man appeared, followed by half a dozen natives. All were
+    armed with muskets, whose barrels glinted and shone in the
+    firelight.</p>
+
+    <p>Springing forward to meet him, North told his story in as
+    few words as possible.</p>
+
+    <p>Ledyard's dark face paled with passion. "By heaven, they
+    shall get a bloody welcome! Now, come, sir; follow me. You must
+    need rest badly."</p>
+
+    <p>As they passed through the village square, now lit
+<!-- Page 104 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page099" name="page099">[pg 99]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    up by many fires and filled with alarmed natives, Ledyard
+    called out in his deep tones&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Gather ye together, my friends. The son of the Slaughterer
+    is near. Send a man fleet of foot to M&#244;ut and bid him tell
+    Nena, the chief, and his head men to come to my house quickly,
+    else in a little while our bones will be gnawed by Charlik's
+    dogs."</p>
+
+    <p>Then with North and Macy besides him, he entered his house,
+    the largest in the village. A woman, young, slender, and
+    fair-skinned, met them at the door. Behind her were some
+    terrified native women, one of whom carried Ledyard's youngest
+    child in her arms.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Rita, my girl," said Ledyard, placing his hand on his
+    wife's shoulder and speaking in English, "these are friends.
+    They have come to warn us. That young hell-pup, Charlik, is
+    attacking us tomorrow. But quick, girl, get something for these
+    gentlemen to eat and drink."</p>
+
+    <p>But North and the harpooner were too excited to eat, and,
+    seated opposite their host, they listened eagerly to him as he
+    told them of his plans to repel the attack; of the bitter
+    hatred that for ten years had existed between the people of
+    Leass&#233; and the old king; and then&#8212;he set his
+    teeth&#8212;how that S&#233;, the friendly sister of the young
+    king, had once sent a secret messenger to him telling him to
+    guard his wife well, for her brother had made a boast that when
+    Leass&#233; and M&#244;ut were given to the flames only Cerita
+    should be spared.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, ten days ago, Mr. North, thinking that this
+<!-- Page 105 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page100" name="page100">[pg 100]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    young tiger-cub Charlik knew that these people here were well
+    prepared to resist an attack, I left in my cutter on a trading
+    voyage to Ponap&#233;. Three days out the vessel began to make
+    water so badly that I had to beat back. I only came ashore
+    yesterday."</p>
+
+    <p>He rose and walked to and fro, muttering to himself. Then he
+    spoke again.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. North, and you, my friend"&#8212;turning to
+    Macy&#8212;"have saved me and those I love from a sudden and
+    cruel death. What can I do to show my gratitude? You cannot now
+    return to your ship; will you join your fortunes with mine? I
+    have long thought of leaving this island and settling in
+    Ponap&#233;. There is money to be made there. Join me and be my
+    partners. My cutter is now hauled up on the beach&#8212;if she
+    were fit to go to sea we could leave the island to-night. But
+    that cannot be done. It will take me a week to put her in
+    proper repair&#8212;and to-morrow we must fight for our
+    lives."</p>
+
+    <p>North stretched out his hand. "Macy and I will stand by you,
+    Ledyard. We do not want to ever put foot again on the deck of
+    the
+    <i>Iroquois</i>
+
+    ."</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <a name='CHAPTER_III'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+    <p>The story of that day of bloodshed and horror, when Charlik
+    and his white allies sought to exterminate the whole community,
+    cannot here be told in
+    <i>all</i>
+
+    its dreadful details. Seventy years have come and gone since
+    then, and there are but two or three men
+<!-- Page 106 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page101" name="page101">[pg 101]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    now living on the island who can speak of it with knowledge as
+    a tale of "the olden days when we were heathens." Let the rest
+    of the tale be told in the words of one of those natives of
+    Leass&#233;, who, then a boy, fought side by side with Ledyard,
+    North, and Macy.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"The sun was going westward in the sky when the two ships
+    rounded the point and anchored in what you white men now call
+    Coquille Harbour. We of Leass&#233;, who watched from the
+    shore, saw six boats put off, filled with men. There pulled
+    inside the reef, and went to the right towards M&#244;ut; three
+    went to the left. Letya (Ledyard), with the two white strangers
+    who had come to him in the night, and two hundred of our men,
+    had long before gone into the mountains to await Charlik and
+    his fighting men, and their white friends. They&#8212;Letya and
+    the Leass&#233; people&#8212;made a trap for Charlik's men in
+    the forest. Charlik himself was in the boats with the other
+    white men. He wanted to see the people of Leass&#233; and
+    M&#244;ut driven into the water, so that he might shoot at them
+    with a new rifle which K&#233;sa or the other ship
+    captain&#8212;I forget which&#8212;had given to him. But he
+    wanted most of all to get Cerita, the wife of Letya, the white
+    man. Only Cerita was to live. These were Charlik's words. He
+    did not know that her husband had returned from the sea. Had he
+    known that, he would not have given all his money and all his
+    oil to the two white captains to
+<!-- Page 107 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page102" name="page102">[pg 102]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    help him to make Leass&#233; and M&#244;ut desolate and give
+    our bones to his dogs to eat.</p>
+
+    <p>"It was a great trap&#8212;the trap prepared by Letya; and
+    Charlik's men and the white men with them fell in it. They fell
+    as a stone falls in a deep well, and sinks and is no more seen
+    of men.</p>
+
+    <p>"This was the manner of the trap: The path down the cliff
+    was between two high walls of rock; at the foot of the cliff
+    was a thick clump of high pandanus trees growing closely
+    together. In between these trees Letya built a high barrier of
+    logs, encompassing the outlet of the path to Leass&#233;. This
+    barrier was a half circle; the two ends touched the edge of the
+    cliff, and the centre was hidden among the pandanus trees. On
+    the top of this barrier the men of Leass&#233; waited with
+    loaded muskets; lower down on the ground were others, they too
+    had loaded muskets. On the top of the cliff where the path led
+    down, fifty men were hidden. They were hidden in the thick
+    scrub which we call
+    <i>oap. Oap</i>
+
+    is a good thing in which to hide from an enemy, and then spring
+    from and slay him suddenly.</p>
+
+    <p>"I, who was then a boy, saw all this. I heard Letya, our
+    white man, tell the head of our village that Charlik's men
+    would enter into the trap and perish. Then kava was made, and
+    Letya and the head men drank. Kava is good, but rum is better
+    to make men fight. We had no rum, but we had great love for
+    Letya and his wife, and his two children, and great hate for
+    Charlik. So we said, 'If this is death, it is death,' and every
+    man went to his post&#8212;some to the barrier at the foot of
+    the cliff, and some to the thicket
+<!-- Page 108 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page103" name="page103">[pg 103]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of
+    <i>oap</i>
+
+    on the summit. Cerita, the wife of Letya the Englishman, was
+    weeping. She was weeping because Nen&#225;, the chief of
+    M&#244;ut, was waiting in the house to kill her if her husband
+    should be slain. But she did not weep because of the fear of
+    death; it was for her children she wept. That is the way of
+    women. What is the life of a child to the life of a man?</p>
+
+    <p>"Nen&#225; was my father's brother. He was a brave man, but
+    was too old to fight, for his eyes were dimmed by many years.
+    So he sat beside Cerita and her two children, with a long knife
+    in his hand and waited. He covered his face with a mat and
+    waited. It was right for him to do this, for Letya was a great
+    man; and his wife, although she was a foreigner, was an
+    honoured woman. Therefore though Nen&#225; might not look upon
+    her face at other times, he could kill her if Letya said she
+    must die. This was quite right and correct. A wife must be
+    guided by her husband and do what is right and correct, and
+    avoid scandal.</p>
+
+    <p>"For many hours the women in the houses waited in silence.
+    Then suddenly they heard the thunder of two hundred guns, and
+    the roaring of voices, then more muskets. They ran out of the
+    houses and looked up to the cliff, and lo! the sky was bright
+    as day, for when Charlik's people and the white men walked into
+    the trap in the darkness, Letya and our people set alight great
+    heaps of dry leaves and scrub, which were placed all along the
+    barrier of logs. This was done so that they could see better to
+    shoot. There were thirty or forty of Charlik's men killed by
+    that volley.
+<!-- Page 109 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page104" name="page104">[pg 104]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    The white man who was leading them was very brave; he tried to
+    climb over the barrier, but fell back dead, for a man named Sru
+    thrust a whale-lance into his heart. All this time the other
+    white men and the rest of Charlik's people were firing their
+    muskets, but their bullets only hit the heavy logs of the
+    barrier, and Letya and our people killed them very easily by
+    putting their muskets through the spaces. When the sailors saw
+    their captain fall, they tried to run away, and the Lele
+    warriors ran with them. But when they reached the path which
+    led up between the cliff, it too was blocked, and many of them
+    became jammed together between the walls, and these were all
+    killed very easily&#8212;some with bullets, and some with big
+    stones. Then those that were left ran round and found inside
+    the trap, trying to get out. They were like rats in a cask, and
+    our people kept killing them as they ran. Some of
+    them&#8212;about thirty&#8212;did climb over, but all were
+    killed, for when they jumped down on the other side our people
+    were there waiting. At last four of the sailors made a big hole
+    by tearing out two posts, and rushed out, followed by the Lele
+    men. Letya was the first man to meet the sailors, and he told
+    them to surrender. Two of them threw down their arms, but the
+    other two ran at Letya, and one of them ran his cutlass into
+    him. It went in at the stomach, and Letya fell. We killed all
+    these white sailors, but some of the Lele men escaped. That was
+    a great pity, but then how can these things be helped?" The two
+    strange white men who were fighting beside L&#275;tya, picked
+    him up, and they carried him
+<!-- Page 110 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page105" name="page105">[pg 105]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    into his house. He was not dead, but he said, 'I shall soon
+    die, take me to my wife.' I did not go with them to the house.
+    I went into the barrier with the other youths to kill the
+    wounded. It is a foolish thing not to kill wounded men; they
+    may get better and kill you. So we killed them. There were
+    fourteen white men slain in that fight beside their
+    captain.</p>
+
+    <p>"Before it was daylight some of our men set out along the
+    beach to look for the boats. They did not want to kill any more
+    white men, but they did want to kill Charlik. They were very
+    fortunate, for before they had gone far on their way they saw
+    three of the boats coming along close in to the beach. So they
+    hid behind some rocks. Charlik was in the first boat; he was
+    standing in the bow pointing out the way. When he came very
+    close they all fired together, and Charlik's life was gone. He
+    fell dead into the sea. Then the boats all turned seaward, and
+    pulled hard for the ships. Then before long, we saw the other
+    three boats going back to the ships; in these last were four of
+    Charlik's men who had escaped. The boats were quickly pulled
+    up, and the ships sailed away, for those on board were
+    terrified when they heard that all the white men they had sent
+    to fight were dead.</p>
+
+    <p>"Letya did not die at once&#8212;not for two days. Cerita
+    his wife and two white men watched beside him all this time.
+    Before he died he called the head men to him, and said that he
+    gave his small ship to the two white men, together with many
+    other things. All his money he gave to his wife, and told her
+    she must go away with the white men, who would take
+<!-- Page 111 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page106" name="page106">[pg 106]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    her back to her own people. To the head men he gave many
+    valuable things, such as tierces of tobacco and barrels of
+    powder. This was quite right and proper, and showed he knew
+    what was correct to do before he died. We buried him on the
+    little islet over there called B&#232;si.</p>
+
+    <p>"The two white men and Cerita and her two children went away
+    in the little ship. But they did not go to Cerita's country:
+    they remained at Ponap&#233;, and there the tall man of the
+    two&#8212;the officer&#8212;married Cerita. All this we learnt
+    a year afterwards from the captain of a whaling ship. It was
+    quite right and proper for Letya's widow to marry so quickly,
+    and to marry the man who had been a friend to her husband."</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 112 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page107" name="page107">[pg 107]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='A_Hundred_Fathoms_Deep'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>A Hundred Fathoms Deep</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>There is still a world or discovery open to the
+    ichthyologist who, in addition to scientific knowledge, is a
+    lover of deep-sea fishing, has some nerve, and is content to
+    undergo some occasional rough experiences, if he elects to
+    begin his researches among the many island groups of the North
+    and South Pacific. I possessed, to some extent, the two latter
+    qualifications; the former, much to my present and lasting
+    regret, I did not. Nearly twenty-six years ago the vessel in
+    which I sailed as supercargo was wrecked on Strong's Island,
+    the eastern outlier of the fertile Caroline Archipelago, and
+    for more than twelve months I devoted the greater part of my
+    time to traversing the mountainous island from end to end, or,
+    accompanied by a hardy and intelligent native, in fishing,
+    either in the peculiarly-formed lagoon at the south end, or two
+    miles or so outside the barrier reef.</p>
+
+    <p>The master of the vessel, I may mention, was the notorious,
+    over maligned, and genial Captain Bully Hayes, and from him I
+    had learnt a little about some of the generally unknown
+    deep-sea fish of Polynesia and Melanesia. He had told me that
+    when once
+<!-- Page 113 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page108" name="page108">[pg 108]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    sailing between Aneityum and Tanna, in the New Hebrides,
+    shortly after a severe volcanic eruption on the former island
+    had been followed by a submarine convulsion, his brig passed
+    through many hundreds of dead and dying fish of great size,
+    some of which were of a character utterly unknown to any of his
+    native crew&#8212;men who came from all parts of the North and
+    South Pacific. More remarkable still, some of these fish had
+    never before been seen by the inhabitants of the islands near
+    which they were found. There were, he said, some five or six
+    kinds, but they were all of the groper family. One of three
+    which was brought on board was discovered floating on the
+    surface when the ship was five miles off Tanna. A boat was
+    lowered, but on getting up to it, the crew found they were
+    unable to lift it from the water; it was, however, towed to the
+    ship, hoisted on board, and cut into three parts, the whole of
+    which were weighed, and reached over 300 lbs. In colour it was
+    a dull grey, with large, closely-adhering scales about the size
+    of a florin; the fins, tail, and lips were blue. Another one,
+    weighing less, had a differently-shaped head, with a curious,
+    pipe-like mouth; this was a uniform dull blue. A similar
+    upturning from the ocean's dark depths of strange fish occurred
+    during a submarine earthquake near Rose Island, a barren spot
+    to the south-west of Samoa. The disturbance threw up vast
+    numbers of fish upon the reefs of Manua, the nearest island of
+    the group, and the natives looked upon their great size and
+    peculiar appearance with unbounded astonishment.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 114 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page109" name="page109">[pg 109]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Without desiring to bore the reader with unnecessary details of
+    my own experiences in the South Seas, but because the statement
+    bears on the subject of this article&#8212;a subject which has
+    been my delight since I was a boy of ten years of age&#8212;I
+    may say that, nine years after the loss of Captain Hayes's
+    vessel on Strong's Island, I was again shipwrecked on Peru, one
+    of the Gilbert, or, as we traders call them, the "Line"
+    Islands. Here I was so fortunate as to take up my residence
+    with one of the local traders, a Swiss named Frank Voliero, who
+    was an ardent deep-sea fisherman, and whose catches were the
+    envy and wonder of the wild and intractable natives among whom
+    he lived; for he had excellent tackle, which enabled him to
+    fish at depths seldom tried by the natives, who have no reason
+    to go beyond sixty or eighty fathoms. In the long interval that
+    had elapsed since my fishing days in the Carolines and my
+    arrival at Peru Island, I had gained such experience in my
+    hobby in many other parts of the Pacific as falls to few men,
+    and the desire to fish in deep water, and get something that
+    astonished the natives of the various islands, had become a
+    passion with me. Voliero and myself went out together
+    frequently, and, did space permit, I should like to describe
+    the fortune that attended us at Peru, as well as my fishing
+    adventures at Strong's Island.</p>
+
+    <p>In a former work I have endeavoured to describe that
+    extraordinary nocturnal-feeding fish, the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    , and the manner of its capture by the Malayo-Polynesian
+    islanders of the Equatorial Pacific, and in the present
+<!-- Page 115 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page110" name="page110">[pg 110]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    article I shall try to convey to my readers an idea of deep-sea
+    fishing in the South Seas generally. When I was living on the
+    little island of Nanomaga (one of the Ellice Group, situated
+    about 600 miles to the north-west of Samoa), as the one
+    resident trader, I found myself in&#8212;if I may use the
+    term&#8212;a marine paradise, as far as fishing went. The
+    natives were one and all expert fishermen, extremely jealous of
+    their reputation of being not only the best and most skilful
+    men in Polynesia in the handling of their frail canoes in a
+    heavy surf, but also of being deep-learned in the lore of
+    deep-sea fishing.</p>
+
+    <p>My arrival at the island caused no little commotion among
+    the young bloods, each of whose chances of gaining the girl of
+    his heart, and being united to her by the local Samoan
+    missionary teacher, depended in a great measure upon his
+    ability to provide sustenance for her from the sea; for
+    Nanomaga, like the rest of the Ellice Group, is but little more
+    than a richly-verdured sandbank, based upon a foundation of
+    coral, and yielding nothing to its people but coconuts and a
+    coarse species of taro, called puraka. The inhabitants, in
+    their low-lying atolls, possess no running streams, no fertile
+    soil, in which, as in the mountainous isles of Polynesia, the
+    breadfruit, the yam, and the sweet potato grow and flourish
+    side by side with such rich and luscious fruits as the orange
+    and banana, and pineapple&#8212;they have but the beneficent
+    coconut and the evergiving sea to supply their needs. And the
+    sea is kind to them, as Nature meant it to be to her own
+    children.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 116 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page111" name="page111">[pg 111]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    The native missionary at Nanomaga was a Samoan. He was intended
+    by nature to be a warrior, a leader of men; or&#8212;and no
+    higher praise can I give to his dauntless courage&#8212;a
+    boat-header on a sperm whaler. Strong of arm and quick of eye,
+    he was the very man to either throw the harpoon or deal the
+    death-giving thrust or the lance to the monarch of the ocean
+    world; but fate or circumstance had made him a missionary
+    instead. He was a fairly good missionary, but a better
+    fisherman.</p>
+
+    <p>Three miles from Nanomaga is a submerged reef, marked on the
+    chart as the Grand Coral Reef, but known to the natives as Tia
+    Kau, "the reef." It is in reality a vast mountain of coral,
+    whose bases lie two hundred fathoms deep, with a flattened
+    summit of about fifty acres in extent, rising to within five
+    fathoms of the surface of the sea. This spot is the resort of
+    incredible numbers of fish, both deep-sea haunting and surface
+    swimming. Some of the latter, such as the
+    <i>pala</i>
+
+    (not the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    )&#8212;a long, scaleless, beautifully-formed fish, with a head
+    of bony plates and teeth like a rip-saw&#8212;are of great
+    size, and afford splendid sport, as they are game fighters and
+    almost as powerful as a porpoise. They run to over 100 lbs.,
+    and yet are by no means a coarse fish. In the shallow water on
+    the top of this mountain reef there are some eight or nine
+    varieties of rock cod, none of which were of any great size;
+    but far below, at a depth of from fifty to seventy fathoms,
+    there were some truly monstrous fish of this species, and I and
+    my missionary friend had the luck to catch the four largest
+    ever taken&#8212;221 lbs., 208 lbs., 118 lbs., and 111 lbs. I
+    had caught when fishing for
+<!-- Page 117 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page112" name="page112">[pg 112]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    schnapper, in thirty fathoms off Camden Haven, on the coast of
+    New South Wales, a mottled black and grey rock cod, which
+    weighed 83 lbs., and was assured by the Sydney Museum
+    authorities that such a weight for a rock cod was rare in that
+    part of the Pacific, but that
+    <i>b&#234;che-de-mer</i>
+
+    fishermen on the Great Barrier Reef had occasionally captured
+    fish of the same variety of double that size and weight.</p>
+
+    <p>Not possessing a boat, we fished from a canoe&#8212;a light,
+    but strong and beautifully constructed craft, with "whalebacks"
+    fore and aft to keep it from being swamped by seas when facing
+    or running from a surf. The outrigger was formed of a very
+    light wood, called
+    <i>pua</i>
+
+    , about fourteen inches in circumference. With the teacher and
+    myself there usually went with us a third man, whose duty it
+    was to keep the canoe head to wind, for anchoring in deep water
+    in such a tiny craft was out of the question, as well as
+    dangerous, should a heavy fish or a shark get foul of the
+    outrigger. Capsizes in the daytime we did not mind, but at
+    night numbers of grey sharks were always cruising around, and
+    they were then especially savage and daring.</p>
+
+    <p>Leaving the pretty little village, which was embowered in a
+    palm grove on the lee side of the island, we would, if
+    intending to fish on the Tia Kau, make a start before dawn,
+    remain there till the canoe was loaded to her raised gunwale
+    pieces with the weight of fish, and then return. Night fishing
+    on the Tia Kau by a single canoe was forbidden by the
+    <i>kaupule</i>
+
+    (head men) as being too dangerous on account of the sharks, and
+    so usually from ten to twenty canoes set out
+<!-- Page 118 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page113" name="page113">[pg 113]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    together. If one did come to grief through being swamped, or
+    capsized by having the outrigger fouled by a shark, there was
+    always assistance near at hand, and it rarely happened that any
+    of the crew were bitten. In 1872, however, a fearful tragedy
+    occurred on the Tia Kau, when a party of seventy
+    natives&#8212;men, women, and children&#8212;who were crossing
+    to the neighbouring Island of Nanomea, were attacked by sharks
+    when overtaken on the reef by a squall at night. Only two
+    escaped to tell the tale.
+    <a href="#footnote_14" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[14]</span>
+    </a>
+    </p>
+
+    <p>If, however, we meant to try for
+    <i>takuo</i>
+
+    , a huge variety of the mackerel-tribe, or
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    , a magnificent bream-shaped fish, we had no need to go so far
+    as the dangerous Tia Kau; three or four cable-lengths from the
+    beach, and right in front of the village, we could lie in water
+    as smooth as glass, and seventy fathoms in depth. Our bait was
+    invariably flying-fish, freshly caught, or the tentacles of an
+    octopus. My lines were of white American cotton, and I
+    generally used two hooks, one below and one above the sinker,
+    both baited with a whole flying-fish, while my companions
+    preferred wooden or iron hooks, of their own manufacture, and
+    lines made from hibiscus bark or coconut fibre.</p>
+
+    <p>I shall always remember with pleasure my first
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    . I was accompanied by the native teacher alone, and we paddled
+    off from the village just after evening service, and brought to
+    about a quarter of a mile outside the reef. The rest of the
+    islanders had gone
+<!-- Page 119 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page114" name="page114">[pg 114]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    round in their canoes to the weather side of the little island
+    to fish for
+    <i>takuo</i>
+
+    , for we were expecting a
+    <i>malaga</i>
+
+    , or party of visitors from the Island of Nukufetau in a day or
+    two, and unusual supplies of fish had to be obtained, to
+    sustain, not only the island's record as the fishing centre of
+    the universe, but the people's reputation for hospitality. It
+    had been my suggestion to the teacher that he and I, who were
+    unable to accompany the others, should try what we could do
+    nearer home. The night was brilliantly starlight, and the sea
+    as smooth as glass&#8212;so smooth that there was not even the
+    faintest swell upon the reef. The trade wind was at rest, and
+    not the faintest breath of air moved the foliage of the coco
+    palms lining the white strip of beach. Now and then a splash or
+    a sudden commotion in the water around us would denote that
+    some hapless flying-fish had taken an aerial flight from a
+    pursuing
+    <i>pala</i>
+
+    , or that a shark had seized a turtle in his cruel jaws.
+    Lighting our pipes, we lowered our lines together according to
+    island etiquette, and touched bottom at thirty fathoms; then
+    hauled in a fathom or two of line to avoid fouling the coral.
+    In a few minutes my companion hooked an
+    <i>utu</i>
+
+    , a sluggish fish, somewhat like a salmon in appearance, with
+    shining silvery scales and a broad flat head. As he was hauling
+    in, and I was looking over the side of the canoe to watch it
+    coming up, I felt a sharp, heavy tug at my own line, and,
+    before I could check it, thirty or forty yards of line whizzed
+    through my fingers with lightning speed.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>Lahe'u!</i>
+
+    " shouted the teacher, hurriedly making
+<!-- Page 120 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page115" name="page115">[pg 115]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    his own line fast, and whipping up his paddle. "Don't give out
+    any more line or he will run under the reef, and we shall lose
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>I knew by the vibration and hum of the line as soon as I had
+    it well in hand that there was a heavy and powerful fish at the
+    end. Ioane, disregarding the
+    <i>utu</i>
+
+    as being of no importance in comparison to a
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    , was plunging his paddle rapidly into the water, and
+    endeavouring to back the canoe seaward into deeper water, but,
+    in spite of his efforts and my own, we were being taken quickly
+    inshore. For some two or three minutes the canoe was dragged
+    steadily landward, and I knew that once the
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    succeeded in getting underneath the overhanging ledge of reef,
+    there would be but little chance of our taking him except by
+    diving, and diving on a moonless night under a reef, and
+    freeing a fish from jagged branches of coral, is not a pleasant
+    task, although an Ellice Islander does not much mind it.
+    Finding that I could not possibly turn the fish, I asked Ioane
+    what I should do. He told me to let go a few fathoms of line,
+    brace my knee against the thwart, and then trust to the sudden
+    jerk to cant the fish's head one way or the other. I did as I
+    was told. Out flew the line, and then came a shock that made
+    the canoe fairly jump, lifted the outrigger clear out of the
+    water, and all but capsized her. But the ruse was successful,
+    for, with a furious shake,
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    changed his course, and started off at a tremendous rate,
+    parallel with the reef, and then gradually headed seaward.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let him go," said Ioane, who was carefully
+<!-- Page 121 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page116" name="page116">[pg 116]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    watching the tautened-out line, and steering at the same time.
+    "'Tis a strong fish, but he is
+    <i>man tonu</i>
+
+    (truly hooked), and will now tire. But give him no more line,
+    and haul up to him."</p>
+
+    <p>For fully five minutes the canoe went flying over the water,
+    and I continued to haul in line fathom by fathom, until I
+    caught sight of, deep down in the water right ahead, a great
+    phosphorescent boil and bubble. Then the pace began to slacken,
+    as the gallant fighter began to turn from side to side, shaking
+    his head and making futile breaks from port to starboard.
+    Bidding me come amidships with the line, Ioane took in his
+    paddle, and picked up the harpoon which we always carried on
+    the outrigger platform in case of meeting a turtle. Nearer and
+    nearer came the great fish, till, with a splash of
+    phosphorescent light and spray, he came to the surface, beating
+    the water with his forked and bony tail, and still trying to
+    get a chance for another downward run. Then Ioane, waiting his
+    opportunity, sent the iron clean through him from side to side,
+    and I sat down and watched, with a thrill of satisfaction and a
+    sigh of relief, his final flurry. In a few minutes we hauled
+    him alongside, drew the harpoon, and with some difficulty
+    managed to get him over the side and lower him into the bottom
+    of the canoe amidships, where he lay fore and aft, his curved
+    back standing up nearly a foot and a half above the raised
+    gunwale. Although not above four feet in length, he was nearly
+    three in depth, and about sixteen inches thick at the
+    shoulder&#8212;a truly noble fish.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 122 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page117" name="page117">[pg 117]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    We have done well," said the teacher, with a pleased laugh, as
+    he hauled in his own line and dropped a 6-lb.
+    <i>utu</i>
+
+    into the canoe. "There will be much talk over this to-morrow,
+    for these people here are very conceited, and think that no one
+    but themselves can catch
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    and
+    <i>pala</i>
+
+    . They will know better now, when they see this one."</p>
+
+    <p>We returned to the shore within two hours from the time we
+    left, with my
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    , an
+    <i>utu</i>
+
+    , and five or six salmon-like fish called
+    <i>tau-tau</i>
+
+    , all nocturnal feeders, and all highly thought of by the
+    natives, especially the latter. The
+    <i>lahe'u</i>
+
+    we hung up under the missionary's verandah, and at daylight I
+    had the intense satisfaction of seeing a crowd of natives
+    surrounding it, and of hearing their flattering allusions to
+    myself as a
+    <i>papalagi masani tonu futi &#237;ka</i>
+
+    &#8212;a white man who really could fish like a native.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 123 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page118" name="page118">[pg 118]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='On_a_Tidal_River'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>On a Tidal River</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>The English visitor to the Eastern Colonies of Australia who
+    is in search of sport with either rod or hand line can always
+    obtain excellent fishing in the summer months even in such
+    traffic-disturbed harbours as Sydney, Newcastle, and other
+    ports; but on the tidal rivers of the eastern and southern
+    seaboard he can, every day, catch more fish than he can carry
+    during seven months of the year. In the true winter months deep
+    sea fishing is not much favoured, except during the prevalence
+    of westerly winds, when, for days at a time, the Pacific is as
+    smooth as a lake; but in the rivers, from Mallacoota Inlet,
+    which is a few miles over the Victorian boundary, to the Tweed
+    River on the north of New South Wales, the stranger may fairly
+    revel not only in the delights of splendid fishing but in the
+    charms of beautiful scenery. He needs no guide, will be put to
+    but little expense, for the country hotel accommodation is good
+    and cheap; and, should he visit some of the northern rivers
+    where the towns, or rather small settlements, are few and far
+    between, he will find the settlers the embodiment of British
+    hospitality.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 124 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page119" name="page119">[pg 119]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Some three years ago the writer formed one of the crew of a
+    little steamer of fifty tons named the
+    <i>Jenny Lind</i>
+
+    , which was sent out along the coast in the endeavour to revive
+    the coast whaling industry. Through stress of weather we had
+    frequently to make a dash for shelter, towing our sole
+    whaleboat, to one of the many tidal rivers on the coast between
+    Sydney and Gabo Island. Here we would remain until the weather
+    broke, and our crew would literally cover the deck with an
+    extraordinary variety of fish in the course of a few hours.
+    Then, at low tide, we could always fill a couple of cornsacks
+    with excellent oysters, and get bucketfuls of large prawns by
+    means of a scoop net improvised from a piece of mosquito
+    netting; game, too, was very plentiful on the lagoons. The
+    settlers were generally glad to see us, and gave us so freely
+    of milk, butter, pumpkins, &amp;c., that, despite the rough
+    handling we always got at sea from the weather, we grew quite
+    fat. But as the greater part of my fishing experience was
+    gained on the northern rivers of the colony of N.S. Wales it is
+    of them I shall write.</p>
+
+    <p>Eighteen hours' run by steamer from Sydney is the Hastings
+    River, on the southern bank of which, a mile from the bar, is
+    the old-time town of Port Macquarie, a quaint, sleepy little
+    place of six hundred inhabitants, who spend their days in
+    fishing and sleeping and waiting for better times. There are
+    two or three fairly good hotels, very pretty scenery along the
+    coast and up the river, and a stranger can pass a month without
+    suffering from ennui&#8212;
+<!-- Page 125 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page120" name="page120">[pg 120]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    that is, of course, if he be fond of fishing and shooting; if
+    he is not he should avoid going there, for it is the dullest
+    coast town in New South Wales. The southern shore, from the
+    steamer wharf to opposite the bar, is lined with a hard beach,
+    on which at high tide, or slack water at low tide, one may sit
+    down in comfort and have great sport with bream, whiting, and
+    flathead. As soon as the tide turns, however, and is well on
+    the ebb or flow, further fishing is impossible, for the river
+    rushes out to sea with great velocity, and the incoming tide is
+    almost as swift. On the other side of the harbour is a long,
+    sandy point, called the North Shore, about a mile in length.
+    This, at the north end, is met by a somewhat dense scrub, which
+    lines the right bank of the river for a couple of miles, and
+    affords a splendid shade to any one fishing on the river bank.
+    The outer or ocean beach is but a few minutes' walk from the
+    river, and a magnificent beach it is, trending in one great
+    unbroken curve to Point Plomer, seven miles from the
+    township.</p>
+
+    <p>Before ascending the river on a fishing trip one has to
+    provide one's self with a plentiful supply of cockles, or
+    "pippies," as they are called locally. These can only be
+    obtained on the northern ocean beach, and not the least
+    enjoyable part of a day's sport consists in getting them. They
+    are triangular in shape, with smooth shells of every imaginable
+    colour, though a rich purple is commonest. As the back wash
+    leaves the sands bare these bivalves may be seen in thick but
+    irregular patches protruding from the sand. Some
+<!-- Page 126 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page121" name="page121">[pg 121]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    times, if the tide is not low enough, one may get rolled over
+    by the surf if he happen to have his back turned seaward.
+    Generally I was accompanied by two boys, known as "Condon's
+    Twins." They were my landlord's sons, and certainly two of the
+    smartest young sportsmen&#8212;although only twelve years
+    old&#8212;ever met with. Both were very small for their age,
+    and I was always in doubt as to which was which. They were
+    always delighted to come with me, and did not mind being soused
+    by a roller now and then when filling my "pippy" bag. Pippies
+    are the best bait one can have for whiting (except prawns) in
+    Australia, for, unlike the English whiting, it will not touch
+    fish bait of any sort, although, when very hungry, it will
+    sometimes take to octopus flesh. Bream (whether black or
+    silvery), flathead, trevally, jew-fish, and, indeed, all other
+    fish obtained in Australia, are not so dainty, for, although
+    they like "pippies" and prawns best, they will take raw meat,
+    fish, or octopus bait with readiness. Certain species of sea
+    and river mullet are like them in this respect, and good sport
+    may be had from them with a rod in the hot months, as Dick and
+    Fred, the twins aforesaid, well knew, for often would their
+    irate father wrathfully ask them why they wasted their time
+    catching "them worthless mullet."</p>
+
+    <p>But let me give an idea of one of many days' fishing on the
+    Hastings, spent with the "Twins." Having filled a sugar bag
+    with "pippies" on the ocean beach, we put on our boots and make
+    our way through the belt of scrub to where our boat is lying,
+<!-- Page 127 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page122" name="page122">[pg 122]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    tied to the protruding roots of a tree. Each of us is armed
+    with a green stick, and we pick our way pretty carefully, for
+    black snakes are plentiful, and to tread on one may mean death.
+    The density of the foliage overhead is such that but little
+    sunlight can pierce through it, and the ground is soft to our
+    feet with the thick carpet of fallen leaves beneath. No sound
+    but the murmuring of the sea and the hoarse notes of countless
+    gulls breaks the silence, for this side of the river is
+    uninhabited, and its solitude disturbed only by some settler
+    who has ridden down the coast to look for straying cattle, or
+    by a fishing party from the town. Our boat, which we had hauled
+    up and then tied to the tree, is now afloat, for the tide has
+    risen, and the long stretches of yellow sandbanks which line
+    the channel on the farther side are covered now with a foot of
+    water. As we drift up the river, eating our lunch, and letting
+    the boat take care of herself, a huge, misshapen thing comes
+    round a low point, emitting horrid groanings and wheezings. It
+    is a steam stern-wheel punt, loaded with mighty logs of
+    black-butt and tallow wood, from fifty feet to seventy feet in
+    length, cut far up the Hastings and the Maria and Wilson
+    Rivers, and destined for the sawmill at Port Macquarie.</p>
+
+    <p>In another hour we are at our landing-place, a selector's
+    abandoned homestead, built of rough slabs, and standing about
+    fifty yards back from the river and the narrow line of brown,
+    winding beach. The roof had long since fallen in, and the
+    fences and outbuildings lay low, covered with vines and
+    creepers. The intense solitude of the place, the motionless
+    forest
+<!-- Page 128 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page123" name="page123">[pg 123]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of lofty grey-boled swamp gums that encompassed it on all sides
+    but one, and the wide stretch of river before it were
+    calculated to inspire melancholy in any one but an ardent
+    fisherman. Scarcely have we hauled our boat up on the sand, and
+    deposited our provisions and water in the roofless house, when
+    we hear a commotion in the river&#8212;a swarm of fish called
+    "tailer" are making havoc among a "school" of small mullet,
+    many of which fling themselves out upon the sand. Presently all
+    is quiet again, and we get our lines ready.</p>
+
+    <p>For whiting and silvery bream rather fine lines are used,
+    but we each have a heavy line for flathead, for these fish are
+    caught in the tidal rivers on a sandy bottom up to three feet
+    and four feet in length. They are in colour, both on back and
+    belly, much like a sole, of great width across the shoulders,
+    and then taper away to a very fine tail. The head is perfectly
+    flat, very thin, and armed on each side with very sharp bones
+    pointing tailward; a wound from one of these causes intense
+    inflammation. The fins are small&#8212;so small as to appear
+    almost rudimentary&#8212;yet the fish swims, or rather darts,
+    along the bottom with amazing rapidity. They love to lie along
+    the banks a few feet from the shore, where, concealed in the
+    sand, they can dart out upon and seize their prey in their
+    enormous "gripsack" mouths. The approach of a boat or a person
+    walking along the sand will cause them to at once speed like
+    lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand
+    and mud which is washed off their backs in their flight. Still,
+    although not a
+<!-- Page 129 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page124" name="page124">[pg 124]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    pleasing fish to look at, the flathead is of a delicious and
+    delicate flavour. There are some variations in their shades of
+    colour, from a pale, delicate grey to a very dark brown,
+    according to their habitat, and, although most frequent in very
+    shallow water, they are often caught in great quantities off
+    the coast in from ten to fifteen fathoms of water. Gut or wire
+    snoodings are indispensable when fishing for flathead, else the
+    fish invariably severs the line with his fine needle-pointed
+    teeth, which are set very closely together. Nothing comes amiss
+    to them as food, but they have a great love for small mullet or
+    whiting, or a piece of octopus tentacle.</p>
+
+    <p>Baiting our heavy lines with mullet&#8212;two hooks with
+    brass-wire snoods to each line&#8212;we throw out about thirty
+    yards, then, leaving two or three fathoms loose upon the shore,
+    we each thrust a stick firmly into the sand, and take a turn of
+    the line round it. As the largest flathead invariably dart upon
+    the bait, and then make a bolt with it, this plan is a good one
+    to follow, unless, of course, they are biting freely; in that
+    case the smaller lines for bream and whiting, &amp;c., are
+    hauled in, for there is more real sport in landing an 8-lb.
+    flathead than there is in catching smaller fish, for he is very
+    game, and fights fiercely for his life.</p>
+
+    <p>Having disposed our big lines, we bait the smaller ones with
+    "pippies," and not two minutes at the outside elapse after the
+    sinkers have touched bottom when we know we are to have a good
+    time, for each of us has hooked a fish, and three whiting are
+    kicking on the sand before five minutes have expired. Then
+<!-- Page 130 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page125" name="page125">[pg 125]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    for another hour we throw out and haul in again as quickly as
+    possible, landing whiting from 6 oz. to nearly 2 lbs. in
+    weight. One of the "Twins" has three hooks on his line, and
+    occasionally lands three fish together, and now and again we
+    get small bream and an occasional "tailer" of 2 lbs. or 3 lbs.
+    As the sun mounts higher the breeze dies away, the heat becomes
+    very great, and we have frequent recourse to our water
+    jar&#8212;in one case mixing it with whisky. Then the whiting
+    cease to bite as suddenly as they have begun, and move off into
+    deeper water. Just as we are debating as to whether we shall
+    take the boat out into mid-stream, Twin Dick gives a yell as
+    his stick is suddenly whipped out of the sand, and the loose
+    line lying beside it rushes away into the water. But Dick is an
+    old hand, and lets his fish have his first bolt, and then turns
+    him. "By Jingo! sir, he's a big fellow," he cries, as he hauls
+    in, the line now as taut as a telegraph wire, and then the
+    other twin comes to his aid, and in a few minutes the outline
+    of the fish is seen, coming in straight ahead as quick as they
+    can pull him. When he is within ten feet of the beach the boys
+    run up the bank and land him safely, as he turns his body into
+    a circle in his attempts to shake out the hook. Being called
+    upon to estimate his weight, I give it as 11 lbs., much to the
+    twins' sorrow&#8212;they think it 15 lbs.</p>
+
+    <p>Half an hour passes, and we catch but half a dozen silvery
+    bream and some small baby whiting, for now the sun is beating
+    down upon our heads, and our naked feet begin to burn and
+    sting, so we adjourn to
+<!-- Page 131 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page126" name="page126">[pg 126]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the old house and rest awhile, leaving our big lines securely
+    tied. But, though the breeze for which we wait comes along by
+    two o'clock, the fish do not, and so, after disinterring our
+    takes from the wet sand wherein we had buried them as caught to
+    prevent them being spoilt by the sun, we get aboard again and
+    pull across to the opposite bank of the river. Here, in much
+    deeper water, about fifteen feet right under the clayey bank,
+    we can see hundreds of fine bream, and now and then some small
+    jew-fish. Taking off our sinkers, we have as good and more
+    exciting sport among the bream than we had with the whiting,
+    catching between four and five dozen by six o'clock. Then,
+    after boiling the billy and eating some fearfully tough corned
+    meat, we get into the boat again, hoist our sail, and land at
+    the little township just after dark.</p>
+
+    <p>Such was one of many similar day's sport on the Hastings,
+    which, with the Bellinger, the Nambucca, the Macleay, and the
+    Clarence, affords good fishing practically all the year round.
+    Then, besides these tidal rivers, there are at frequent
+    intervals along the coast tidal lagoons and "blind" creeks
+    where fish congregate in really incredible quantities. Such
+    places as Lake Illawarra and Lake Macquarie are fishing resorts
+    well known to the tourist; but along the northern coast, where
+    the population is scantier, and access by rail or steamer more
+    difficult, there is an absolutely new field open to the
+    sportsman&#8212;in fact, these places are seldom visited for
+    either fishing or shooting by people from Sydney. During
+<!-- Page 132 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page127" name="page127">[pg 127]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    November and December the bars of these rivers are literally
+    black with incredible numbers of coarse sea-salmon&#8212;a fish
+    much like the English sea-bass&#8212;which, making their way
+    over the bars, swim up the rivers and remain there for about a
+    week. Although these fish, which weigh from 6 lbs. to 10 lbs.,
+    do not take a bait and are rather too coarse to eat, their roes
+    are very good, especially when smoked. They are captured with
+    the greatest of ease, either by spearing or by the hand; for
+    sometimes they are in such dense masses that they are unable to
+    manoeuvre in small bays; and the urchins of coastal towns hail
+    their yearly advent with delight. They usually make their first
+    appearance about the second week in November, and are always
+    followed by a great number of very large sharks and saw-fish,
+    which commit dreadful havoc in their serried and helpless
+    ranks. Following the sea-salmon, the rivers are next visited in
+    January by shoals of very large sea-mullet&#8212;blue-black
+    backs, silvery bellies and sides, and yellow fins and tails.
+    These, too, will not take a bait, but are caught in nets, and,
+    if a steamer happens to be on the eve of leaving for Sydney,
+    many hundreds of baskets are sent away; but they barely pay the
+    cost of freight and commission, I believe. There are several
+    varieties of sea-mullet, one or two of which will take the hook
+    freely, and I have often caught them off the rocky coast of New
+    South Wales with a rod when the sea has been smooth. The
+    arrival of the big sea-mullet denotes that the season for
+    jew-fish is at its height; and if the stranger to Australian
+<!-- Page 133 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page128" name="page128">[pg 128]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    waters wants exciting sport let him try jew-fishing at night.
+    In deep water off the coast these great fish are occasionally
+    caught during daylight, but a dull, cloudy night is best, when
+    they may be caught from the beach or river bank in shallow
+    water. Very stout lines and heavy hooks are used, for a 90-lb.
+    or l00-lb. jew-fish is very common. Baiting with a whole mullet
+    or whiting, or one of the tentacles of an octopus, the most
+    amateurish fisherman cannot fail to hook two or three jew-fish
+    in a night. (Even in Sydney harbour I have seen some very large
+    ones caught by people fishing from ferry wharves.) They are
+    very powerful, and also very game, and when they rise to the
+    surface make a terrific splashing. At one place on the Hastings
+    River, called Blackman's Point, a party of four of us took
+    thirteen fish, the heaviest of which was 42 lbs. and the
+    lightest 9 lbs. Next morning, however, the Blackman's Point
+    ferryman, who always set a line from his punt when he turned
+    in, showed us one of over 70 lbs. When they grow to such a size
+    as this they are not eaten locally, as the flesh is very often
+    full of thin, thread-like worms. The young fish, however, are
+    very palatable.</p>
+
+    <p>The saw-fish, to which I have before alluded as harrying the
+    swarms of sea-salmon, also make havoc with the jew-fish, and
+    very often are caught on jew-fish lines. They are terrible
+    customers to get foul of (I do not confound them with the
+    sword-fish) when fishing from a small boat. Their huge bone
+    bill, set on both sides with its terrible sharp spikes, their
+    great length, and enormous strength, render it impossible
+<!-- Page 134 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page129" name="page129">[pg 129]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    to even get them alongside, and there is no help for it but
+    either to cut the line or pull up anchor and land the creature
+    on the shore. Even then the task of despatching one of these
+    fish is no child's play on a dark night, for they lash their
+    long tails about with such fury that a broken leg might be the
+    result of coming too close. In the rivers of Northern
+    Queensland the saw-fish attain an enormous size, and the
+    Chinese fishermen about Cooktown and Townsville often have
+    their nets destroyed by a saw-fish enfolding himself in them.
+    Alligators, by the way, do the same thing there, and are
+    sometimes captured, perfectly helpless, in the folds of the
+    nets, in which they have rolled themselves over and over again,
+    tearing it beyond repair with their feet, but eventually
+    yielding to their fate.</p>
+
+    <p>The schnapper, the best of all Australian fish, is too well
+    known to English visitors to describe in detail. Most town-bred
+    Australians generally regard it as a purely ocean-loving fish,
+    or at least only frequenting very deep waters in deep harbours,
+    such as Sydney, Jervis Bay, and Twofold Bay. This is quite a
+    mistake, for in many of the rivers, twenty or more miles up
+    from the sea, the writer and many other people have not only
+    caught these beautiful fish, but seen fishermen haul in their
+    nets filled with them. But they seldom remain long, preferring
+    the blue depths of ocean to the muddy bottoms of tidal rivers,
+    for they are rock-haunting and surf-loving.</p>
+
+    <p>Of late years the northern bar harbours and rivers of New
+    South Wales have been visited by a fish that
+<!-- Page 135 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page130" name="page130">[pg 130]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    in my boyhood's days was unknown even to the oldest
+    fisherman&#8212;the bonito. Although in shape and size they
+    exactly resemble the ocean bonito of tropic seas, these new
+    arrivals are lighter in colour, with bands of marbled grey
+    along the sides and belly. They bite freely at a running
+    bait&#8212;
+    <i>i.e.,</i>
+
+    when a line is towed astern, and are very good when eaten quite
+    fresh, but, like all of the mackerel tribe, rapidly deteriorate
+    in a few hours after being caught. The majority of the coast
+    settlers will not eat them, being under the idea that, as they
+    are all but scaleless, they are "poisonous." This silly
+    impression also prevails with regard to many other scaleless
+    fish on the Australian coast, some of which, such as the
+    trevally, are among the best and most delicate in flavour. The
+    black and white rock cod is also regarded with aversion by the
+    untutored settlers of the small coast settlements, yet these
+    fish are sold in Sydney, like the schnapper, at prohibitive
+    prices.</p>
+
+    <p>In conclusion, let me advise any one who is contemplating a
+    visit to Australia, and means to devote any of his time to
+    either river or sea fishing, to take his rods with him; all the
+    rest of his tackle he can buy as cheap in the colonies as he
+    can in England. Rods are but little used in salt-water fishing
+    in Australia, and are rather expensive. Those who do use a rod
+    are usually satisfied with a bamboo&#8212;a very good rod it
+    makes, too, although inconvenient to carry when
+    travelling&#8212;but the generality of people use hand lines.
+    And the visitor must not be persuaded that he can always get
+    good fishing without
+<!-- Page 136 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page131" name="page131">[pg 131]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    going some distance from Sydney or Melbourne. That there is
+    some excellent sport to be obtained in Port Jackson in summer
+    is true, but it is lacking in a very essential thing&#8212;the
+    quietude that is dear to the heart of every true fisherman.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 137 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page132" name="page132">[pg 132]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='Denison_Gets_Another_Ship'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>Denison Gets Another Ship</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>Owing to reduced circumstances, and a growing hatred of the
+    hardships of the sea, young Tom Denison (ex-supercargo of the
+    South Sea Island trading schooner
+    <i>Palestine</i>
+
+    ) had sailed from Sydney to undertake the management of an
+    alleged duck-farm in North Queensland. The ducks, and the vast
+    area of desolation in which they suffered a brief existence,
+    were the property of a Cooktown bank, the manager of which was
+    Denison's brother. He was a kind-hearted man, who wanted to
+    help Tom along in the world, and, therefore, was grieved when
+    at the end of three weeks the latter came into Cooktown humping
+    his swag, smoking a clay pipe, and looking exceedingly tired,
+    dirty, and disreputable generally. However, all might have gone
+    well even then had not Mrs. Aubrey Denison, the brother's wife,
+    unduly interfered and lectured Tom on his "idle and dissolute
+    life," as she called it, and made withering remarks about the
+    low tastes of sailors other than captains of mail steamers or
+    officers in the Navy. Tom, who intended to borrow &#163;10 from
+    his brother to pay his passage back to Sydney to look for a
+    ship, bore it all in silence, and
+<!-- Page 138 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page133" name="page133">[pg 133]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    then said that he should like to give up the sea and become a
+    missionary in the South Seas, where he was "well acquainted
+    with the natives."</p>
+
+    <p>Mrs. Aubrey (who was a very refined young lady) smiled
+    contemptuously, and turned down the corners of her pretty
+    little mouth in a manner that made the unsuccessful duck-farmer
+    boil with suppressed fury, as she remarked that
+    <i>she</i>
+
+    had heard of some of the shocking stories he had been telling
+    the accountant and cashier of the
+    <i>characters</i>
+
+    of the people in the South Seas, and
+    <i>she</i>
+
+    quite understood
+    <i>why</i>
+
+    he wished to return there and re-associate with his vulgar and
+    wicked companions. Now, she added, had he stuck bravely to work
+    with the ducks, the Bank (she uttered the word "Bank" in the
+    tone of reverence as one would say "The Almighty") would have
+    watched his career with interest, and in time his brother would
+    have used his influence with the General Manager to obtain a
+    position for him, Tom Denison, in the Bank itself! But, judging
+    from
+    <i>her</i>
+
+    knowledge of his (Tom's) habits and disposition, she would be
+    doing wrong to hold out the slightest hope for him now,
+    and&#8212;&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Look here, Maud, you're only twenty-two&#8212;two years
+    older than me, and you talk like an old grandmother;" and then
+    his wrath overpowered his judgment&#8212;"and you'll look like
+    one before you're twenty-five. Don't you lecture
+    <i>me</i>
+
+    . I'm not your husband,
+    <i>thank Heaven above</i>
+
+    ! And damn the bank and its carmine ducks." (He did not say
+    "carmine," but I study the proprieties, and this is not a
+    sanguinary story.)</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 139 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page134" name="page134">[pg 134]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    From the weatherboard portals of the bank Tom strode out in
+    undisguised anger, and obtained employment on a collier,
+    discharging coals. Then, by an extraordinary piece of good
+    luck, he got a billet as proof-reader on the North Queensland
+    <i>Trumpet Call</i>
+
+    , from which, after an exciting three weeks, he was dismissed
+    for "general incompetency and wilful neglect of his duties." So
+    with sorrow in his heart he had turned to the ever-resourceful
+    sea again for a living. He worked his passage down to Sydney in
+    an old, heart-broken, wheezing steamer named the
+    <i>You Yangs</i>
+
+    , and stepped jauntily ashore with sixteen shillings in his
+    pocket, some little personal luggage rolled up in his blanket,
+    and an unlimited confidence in his own luck.</p>
+
+    <p>Two vessels were due from the South Sea Islands in about a
+    month, and as the skippers were both well known to and were on
+    friendly terms with him, he felt pretty certain of getting a
+    berth as second mate or supercargo on one of them. Then he went
+    to look for a quiet lodging.</p>
+
+    <p>This was soon found, and then realising the fact that
+    sixteen shillings would not permit him viewing the sights of
+    Sydney and calling upon the Governor, as is the usual procedure
+    with intellectual and dead-broke Englishmen who come to
+    Australia with letters of introduction from people who are
+    anxious to get rid of them, he tried to get temporary
+    employment by applying personally at the leading warehouses and
+    merchants' offices. The first day he failed; also the second.
+    On the third day the secretary of a milk company desired him to
+    call again in three days. He did, and was then
+<!-- Page 140 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page135" name="page135">[pg 135]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    told by the manager that he "might have something" for him in a
+    month or two. This annoyed Tom, as he had put on his sole clean
+    collar that morning to produce a good impression. He asked the
+    official if six months would not suit him better, as he wanted
+    to go away on a lengthy fishing trip with the Attorney-General.
+    The manager looked at him in a dignified manner, and then bade
+    him an abrupt good-day.</p>
+
+    <p>A week passed. Funds were getting low. Eight shillings had
+    been paid in advance for his room, and he had spent five in
+    meals. But he was not despondent; the
+    <i>Susannah Booth</i>
+
+    , dear, comfortable old wave-puncher, beloved of hard-up
+    supercargoes, was due in a week, and, provided he could inspire
+    his landlady with confidence until then, all would be well.</p>
+
+    <p>But the day came when he had to spend his last shilling, and
+    after a fruitless endeavour to get a job on the wharves to
+    drive one of the many steam winches at work discharging cargo
+    from the various ships, he returned home in disgust.</p>
+
+    <p>That night, as he sat cogitating in his bedroom over his
+    lucklessness, his eye fell on a vegetable monstrosity from
+    Queensland, presented to him by one of the hands on board the
+    <i>You Yangs</i>
+
+    . It was a huge, dried bean-pod, about four feet long, and
+    contained about a dozen large black beans, each about the size
+    of a watch. He had seen these beans, after the kernels were
+    scooped out, mounted with silver, and used as match-boxes by
+    bushmen and other Australian gentry. It at once occurred to him
+    that he might sell it. Surely the thing ought to be worth at
+    least five shillings.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 141 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page136" name="page136">[pg 136]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    In two minutes he was out in the street, but to his disgust
+    found most of the shops closed, except the very small retail
+    establishments.</p>
+
+    <p>Entering a little grocery store, he approached the
+    proprietor, a man with a pale, gargoyle-like face, and
+    unpleasant-looking, raggedy teeth, and showing him the bean,
+    asked him to buy it.</p>
+
+    <p>The merchant looked at it with some interest and asked Tom
+    what it was called.</p>
+
+    <p>Tom said it was a
+    <i>Locomotor Ataxy</i>
+
+    . (He didn't know what a
+    <i>locomotor ataxy</i>
+
+    was; but it sounded well, and was all the Latin he knew, having
+    heard from his mother that a dissolute brother of hers had been
+    afflicted with that complaint, superinduced by spirituous
+    liquors.)</p>
+
+    <p>The grocer-man turned the vegetable over and over again in
+    his hand, and then asked the would-be vendor if he had any
+    more. Tom said he hadn't. The
+    <i>locomotor ataxy</i>
+
+    , he remarked, was a very rare bean, and very valuable. But he
+    would sell it cheap&#8212;for five shillings.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't want it," said the man rudely, pushing it away
+    contemptuously. "It's only a faked-up thing anyway, made of
+    paper-mashy."</p>
+
+    <p>Tom tried to convince him that the thing was perfectly
+    genuine, and actually grew on a vine in North Queensland; but
+    the Notre Dame gargoyle-featured person only heard him with a
+    snort of contempt. It was obvious he wouldn't buy it. So,
+    sneeringly observing to the grocer that no doubt five shillings
+    was a large sum for a man in such a small way of
+<!-- Page 142 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page137" name="page137">[pg 137]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    business as he was, Tom went out again into the cold world.</p>
+
+    <p>He tried several other places, but no one would even look at
+    the thing. After vainly tramping about for over two hours, he
+    turned away towards his lodging, feeling very dispirited, and
+    thinking about breakfast.</p>
+
+    <p>Turning up a side street called Queen's Place, so as to make
+    a short cut home, he espied in a dimly-lighted little shop an
+    old man and a boy working at the cobbler trade. They had
+    honest, intelligent faces, and looked as if they wanted to buy
+    a
+    <i>locomotor ataxy</i>
+
+    very badly. He tapped at the door and then entered.</p>
+
+    <p>"Would you like to buy this?" he said to the old man. He did
+    not like to repeat his foolish Latin nonsense, for the old
+    fellow had such a worn, kindly face, and his honest, searching
+    eyes met his in such a way that he felt ashamed to ask him to
+    buy what could only be worthless rubbish to him.</p>
+
+    <p>The cobbler looked at the monstrosity wonderingly. "'Tis a
+    rare big bean," he said, in the trembling quaver of old age,
+    and with a mumbling laugh like that of a pleased child. "I'll
+    give you two shillin's for it. I suppose you want money badly,
+    or else you wouldn't be wanderin' about at ten o'clock at night
+    tryin' to sell it. I hope you come by it honest, young
+    man?"</p>
+
+    <p>Tom satisfied him on this score, and then the ancient gave
+    him the two shillings. Bidding him good-night, Tom returned
+    home and went to bed.</p>
+
+    <p>(Quite two years after, when Denison returned to
+<!-- Page 143 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page138" name="page138">[pg 138]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Sydney from the South Seas with more money "than was good for
+    his moral welfare," as his sister-in-law remarked, he sought
+    out the old cobbler gentleman and bought back his
+    <i>locomotor ataxy</i>
+
+    bean for as many sovereigns as he had been given shillings for
+    it.)</p>
+
+    <p>Next morning he was down at the wharves before six o'clock,
+    smoking his pipe contentedly, after breakfasting sumptuously at
+    a coffee-stall for sixpence. There was a little American barque
+    lying alongside the Circular Quay, and some of the hands were
+    bending on her head-sails. Tom sat down on the wharf stringer
+    dangling his feet and watching them intently. Presently the
+    mate appeared on the poop, smoking a cigar. He looked at Tom
+    critically for a moment or so, and then said&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Looking for a ship, young feller?"</p>
+
+    <p>The moment Tom heard him speak, he jumped to his feet, for
+    he knew the voice, last heard when the possessor of it was mate
+    of the island trading schooner
+    <i>Sadie Caller</i>
+
+    , a year before in Samoa.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is that you, Bannister?" he cried.</p>
+
+    <p>"Reckon 'taint no one else, young feller. Why, Tom Denison,
+    is it you? Step right aboard."</p>
+
+    <p>Tom was on the poop in an instant, the mate coming to him
+    with outstretched hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the matter, Tom? Broke?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Stony!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sit down here and tell me all about it. I heard you had
+    left the
+    <i>Palestine</i>
+
+    . Say, sling that dirty old pipe overboard, and take one of
+    these cigars. The skipper will be on deck presently, and the
+    sight of it
+<!-- Page 144 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page139" name="page139">[pg 139]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    would rile him terrible. He hez his new wife aboard, and she
+    considers pipes ez low-down."</p>
+
+    <p>Tom laughed as he thought of Mrs. Aubrey, and flung his clay
+    over the side. "What ship is this, Bannister?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The
+    <i>J.W. Seaver</i>
+
+    , of 'Frisco. We're from the Gilbert Islands with a cargo of
+    copra."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is your supercargo?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Haven't got one. Can't get one here, either. Say, Tom,
+    you're the man. The captain will jump at getting you! Since he
+    married he considers his life too valuable to be trusted among
+    natives, and funks at going ashore and doing supercargo's work.
+    Now you come below, and I'll rake out enough money to get you a
+    high-class suit of store clothes and shiny boots. Then you come
+    back to dinner. I'll talk to him between then and now. He knows
+    a lot about you. I'll tell him that since you left the
+    <i>Palestine</i>
+
+    you've been touring your native country to 'expand your mind.'
+    <i>She's</i>
+
+    Boston, as ugly as a brown stone jug, and highly intellectual.
+    <i>He's</i>
+
+    all right, and as good a sailor-man as ever trod a deck, but
+    <i>she's</i>
+
+    boss, runs the ship, and looks after the crew's morals. Thet's
+    why we're short-handed. But she'll take to you like
+    lightning&#8212;when she hears that you've been 'expanding your
+    mind.' Buy a second-hand copy of Longfellow's, poems, and tell
+    her that it has been your constant companion in all your
+    wanderings among vicious cannibals, and she'll just decorate
+    your cabin like a prima-donna's boudoir, darn your socks, and
+    make you read some of her own poetry."</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 145 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page140" name="page140">[pg 140]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    That afternoon, Mr. Thomas Denison, clean-shirted and looking
+    eminently respectable and prosperous, and feeling once more a
+    man after the degrading duck episode in North Queensland, was
+    strolling about George Street with Bannister, and at peace with
+    the world and himself. For the skipper's wife had been
+    impressed with his intellectuality and modest demeanour, and
+    was already at work decorating his cabin&#8212;as Bannister had
+    prophesied.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 146 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page141" name="page141">[pg 141]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='Jack_Sharks_Pilot'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>Jack Shark's Pilot</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>Early one morning as we in the
+    <i>Palestine</i>
+
+    , South Sea trading schooner, were sailing slowly between
+    Fotuna and Alofa&#8212;two islands lying to the northward of
+    Fiji&#8212;one of the native hands came aft and reported two
+    large sharks alongside. The mate at once dived below for his
+    shark hook, while I tried to find a suitable bit of beef in the
+    harness cask. Just as the mate appeared carrying the heavy hook
+    and chain, our skipper, who was lying on the skylight smoking
+    his pipe, although half asleep, inquired if there were "any
+    pilot fish with the brutes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir," said a sailor who was standing in the waist,
+    looking over the side, "there's quite a lot of 'em. I've never
+    seen so many at one time before. There's nigh on a dozen."</p>
+
+    <p>The captain was on his feet in an instant. "Don't lower that
+    hook of yours just yet, Porter," he said to the mate. "I'm
+    going to get those pilot fish first. Tom, bring me up my small
+    fishing line."</p>
+
+    <p>"They won't take a hook, will they?" I inquired.</p>
+
+    <p>"Just you wait and see, sonny. Ever taste pilot fish?"</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 147 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page142" name="page142">[pg 142]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    No. Are they good to eat?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Best fish in the ocean, barring flying-fish," replied the
+    skipper, as, after examining his line, he cut off both hook and
+    leaden sinker and bent on a small-sized
+    <i>pa</i>
+
+    &#8212;a native-made bonito hook cut out from a solid piece of
+    pearl-shell.</p>
+
+    <p>Then jumping up into the whaleboat which hung in davits on
+    the starboard quarter he waited for the sharks to appear, and
+    the mate and I leant over the side and watched. We had not long
+    to wait, for in a few minutes one came swimming quickly up from
+    astern, and was almost immediately joined by the other, which
+    had been hanging about amidships. They were both, however,
+    pretty deep down, and at first I could not discern any pilot
+    fish. The captain, however, made a cast and the hook dropped in
+    the water, about fifty feet in the rear of the sharks; he let
+    it sink for less than half a minute, and then began hauling in
+    the line as quickly as possible, and at the same moment I saw
+    some of the pilot fish quite distinctly&#8212;some swimming
+    alongside and some just ahead of their detestable companions,
+    which were now right under the counter. Then something gleamed
+    brightly, and the shining hook appeared, for a second or two
+    only, for two of the "pilots" darted after it with
+    lightning-like rapidity, and presently one came to the surface
+    with a splash, beautifully hooked, and was swung up into the
+    boat.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now for some fun," cried the captain, as tossing the fish
+    to us on deck he again lowered the hook. This time it had
+    barely touched the surface of the
+<!-- Page 148 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page143" name="page143">[pg 143]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    water when away went the line with a rush right under our
+    keel.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is a big fellow," said the skipper, and up came
+    another dark blue and silver beauty about a foot in length,
+    dropping off the hook just in time as he was hoisted clear of
+    the gunwale. Then, in less than ten minutes&#8212;so eager were
+    they to rush the hook the moment it struck the water&#8212;five
+    more were jumping about upon the deck or in the boat. Then came
+    a calamity, the eighth fish dropped off when half way up and
+    took the hook with him, having swallowed it and bitten through
+    the line.</p>
+
+    <p>The captain jumped on deck again and began rooting out his
+    bag for another small-sized
+    <i>pa</i>
+
+    , but to his disgust could not find one ready for
+    use&#8212;none of them having the actual "hook" portion lashed
+    to the shank, and the operation of lashing one of these
+    cleverly-made native hooks takes some little time and patience,
+    for the holes which are bored through the base of the "hook"
+    part in order to lash it to the shank are very small, and only
+    very fine and strong cord, such as banana-fibre, can be used.
+    However, while the irate captain was fussing over his task, the
+    mate and I were watching the movements of the sharks and their
+    little friends with the greatest interest, having promised the
+    captain not to lower the shark hook till he had caught the rest
+    of the pilot fish, for he assured us that they would most
+    likely disappear after the sharks were captured. (I learned
+    from my own experience afterward that he was mistaken, for when
+    a shark is caught at sea his attendants will frequently
+<!-- Page 149 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page144" name="page144">[pg 144]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    remain with the ship for weeks, or until another shark appears,
+    in which case they at once attach themselves to him.)</p>
+
+    <p>Both sharks were now swimming almost on the surface, so
+    close to the ship that they could have been caught in a running
+    bowline or harpooned with the greatest ease; and in fact our
+    native crew, who were very partial to shark's flesh, had both
+    harpoon and bowline in readiness in case the cunning brutes
+    would not take a bait. They were both of great size&#8212;the
+    largest being over twelve or thirteen feet in length. With the
+    smaller one were three pilot fish, one swimming directly under
+    the end of its nose, the others just over its eyes; the larger
+    had but one attendant, which kept continually changing its
+    position, sometimes being on one side, then on another, then
+    disappearing for a few moments underneath the monster's belly,
+    or pressing itself so closely against the creature's side that
+    it appeared as if it was adhering to it. I had never before
+    seen these fish at such close quarters, and their extraordinary
+    activity and seeming attachment to their savage companions was
+    most astonishing to witness; occasionally when either of the
+    sharks would cease moving, they would take up a position within
+    a few inches of its jaws, remain there a few seconds, and then
+    swim under its belly and reappear at the tail, then slowly make
+    their way along its back or sides to the hideous head again.
+    Sometimes, either singly or all together, they would dart away
+    on either side, but quickly returned, never being absent more
+    than a minute. These brief excursions showed them to be
+<!-- Page 150 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page145" name="page145">[pg 145]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    extremely swift, yet when they returned to their huge
+    companions they instantly became&#8212;at least to all
+    appearance&#8212;intensely sluggish and languid in their
+    movements, and swam in an undecided, indefinite sort of manner
+    as if thoroughly exhausted. But this was but in appearance, for
+    suddenly they would again shoot away along the surface of the
+    water with lightning-like rapidity, disappear from view of the
+    keenest eye, and, ere you could count five, again be beside the
+    vessel swimming as leisurely, if not as lazily, as if they were
+    incapable of quickening their speed.</p>
+
+    <p>Having his line ready again, the captain now began fishing
+    from the stern, and succeeded in catching three of the
+    remaining four, the last one (which our natives said was the
+    fish which had swallowed the first hook) refusing even to look
+    at the tempting bit of iridescent pearl-shell. Then the
+    impatient mate lowered his bait over the stern, having first
+    passed the line outboard and given the end to three or four of
+    the crew, who stood in the waist ready to haul in. The smaller
+    of the two sharks was at once hooked, and when dragged up
+    alongside amidships struggled and lashed about so furiously
+    that the big fellow came lumbering up to see what was the
+    matter, and Billy Rotumah, our native boatswain, who was
+    watching for him, promptly drove a harpoon socket deeply into
+    him between the shoulders; then, after some difficulty, a
+    couple of running bowlines settled them both in a comfortable
+    position to be stunned with an axe.</p>
+
+    <p>The schooner was at this time within a few miles of a small
+    village on Alofa, named Mua, and presently
+<!-- Page 151 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page146" name="page146">[pg 146]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    a boat manned by natives boarded us to sell yams, taro,
+    pineapples, and bananas, all of which we bought from them in
+    exchange for the sharks' livers and some huge pieces of flesh
+    weighing two or three hundred pounds. These people (who
+    resemble the Samoans in appearance and language) were much
+    impressed and terrified when they saw the pilot fish which had
+    been caught, and told our crew that ours would be an unlucky
+    ship&#8212;that we had done a dangerous and foolish thing.
+    Their feeling on the subject was strong; for when I asked them
+    if they would take two or three of the fish on shore to Father
+    Herv&#233;, one of the French priests living on Fotuna, who was
+    an old friend, they started back in mingled terror and
+    indignation, and absolutely declined to even touch them. Taking
+    one of the pilot fish up I held it by the head between my
+    forefinger and thumb and asked the natives if they did not
+    consider it good to look at.</p>
+
+    <p>"True," replied a fine, stalwart young fellow, speaking in
+    Samoan, "it is good to look at," and then he added gravely, "<i>Talofa
+    lava ia te outou i le vaa nei, ua lata mai ne aso
+    malaia ma le tig&#257;</i>"
+
+    ("Alas for all you people on this ship, there is a day of
+    disaster and sorrow near you").</p>
+
+    <p>I tried to ascertain the cause of their terror, but could
+    only elicit the statement that to kill a pilot fish meant
+    direful misfortune. No sensible man, they asserted, would do
+    such a senseless and
+    <i>saua</i>
+
+    (cruel) thing, and to eat one was an abomination
+    unutterable.</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as our visitors had left I hurried to make a closer
+    examination of our prizes before the cook took
+<!-- Page 152 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page147" name="page147">[pg 147]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    possession of them. Of the eleven, only one was over a foot in
+    length, the rest ranged from five to ten inches. The beautiful
+    dark blue of the head and along the back, so noticeable when
+    first caught, had now lost its brilliancy, and the four wide
+    vertical black stripes on the sides had also become dulled,
+    although the silvery belly was still as bright as a new dollar.
+    The eyes were rather large for such a small fish, and all the
+    fins were blue-black, with a narrow white line running along
+    the edges. Their appearance even an hour after death was very
+    handsome, and in shape they were much like a very plump trout.
+    In the stomachs of some we found small flying squid, little
+    shrimps, and other Crustacea.</p>
+
+    <p>Our Manila-man cook, although not a genius, certainly knew
+    how to fry fish, and that morning we had for breakfast some of
+    Jack Shark's pilots&#8212;the most delicately-flavoured
+    deep-sea fish I have ever tasted&#8212;except, perhaps, that
+    wonderful and beautiful creature, the flying-fish.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 153 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page148" name="page148">[pg 148]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='The_quotPaluquot_of_the_Equatorial_Pacific'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>The "Palu" of the Equatorial Pacific</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>During a residence of half a lifetime among the various
+    island-groups of the North-western and South Pacific, I devoted
+    much of my spare time&#8212;and I had plenty of it
+    occasionally&#8212;to deep-sea fishing, my tutors being the
+    natives of the Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice
+    Groups.</p>
+
+    <p>The inhabitants of the last-named cluster of islands are, as
+    I have said, the most skilled fishermen of all the
+    Malayo-Polynesian peoples with whom it has been my fortune to
+    have come in contact. The very poverty of their island
+    homes&#8212;mere sandbanks covered with coconut and pandanus
+    palms only&#8212;drives them to the sea for their food; for the
+    Ellice Islanders, unlike their more fortunate prototypes who
+    dwell in the forest-clad, mountainous, and fertile islands of
+    Samoa, Tahiti, Raratonga, &amp;c., live almost exclusively upon
+    coconuts, the drupes of the pandanus palm, and fish. From their
+    very infancy they look to the sea as the main source of their
+    food-supply, either in the clear waters of the lagoon, among
+    the breaking surf on the
+<!-- Page 154 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page149" name="page149">[pg 149]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    reef, or out in the blue depths of the ocean beyond. From morn
+    till night the frail canoes of these semi-nude, brown-skinned,
+    and fearless toilers of the sea may be seen by the voyager
+    paddling swiftly over the rolling swell of the wide Pacific in
+    chase of the
+    <i>bonito</i>
+
+    , or lying motionless upon the water, miles and miles away from
+    the land, ground-fishing with lines a hundred fathoms long.
+    Then, as the sun dips, the flare of torches will be seen along
+    the sandy beaches as the night-seekers of flying-fish launch
+    their canoes and urge them through the rolling surf beyond the
+    reef, where, for perhaps three or four hours, they will paddle
+    slowly to and fro, just outside the white line of roaring
+    breakers, and return to the shore with their tiny craft
+    half-filled with the most beautiful and wonderful fish in the
+    world. The Ellice Island method of catching flying-fish would
+    take too long to explain here, much as I should like to do so;
+    my purpose is to describe a very remarkable fish called the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    , in the capture of which these people are the most skilful.
+    The catching of flying-fish, however, bears somewhat on the
+    subject of this article, as the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    will not take any other bait but a flying-fish, and therefore a
+    supply of the former is a necessary preliminary to
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    fishing.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us imagine, then, that the bait has been secured, and
+    that a party of
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    -fishers are ready to set out from the little island of
+    Nanomaga, the smallest but most thickly populated of the Ellice
+    Group. The night must be windless and moonless, the latter
+    condition being absolutely indispensable, although,
+<!-- Page 155 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page150" name="page150">[pg 150]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    curiously enough, the fish will take the hook on an ordinary
+    starlight night. Time after time have I tried my luck with
+    either a growing or a waning moon, much to the amusement of the
+    natives, and never once did I get a
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    , although other nocturnal-feeding fish bit freely enough.</p>
+
+    <p>The tackle used by the natives is made of coconut cinnet,
+    four or eight-stranded, of great strength, and capable of
+    holding a fifteen-foot shark should one of these prowlers seize
+    the bait. The hook is made of wood&#8212;in fact, the same as
+    is used for shark-fishing&#8212;about one inch and a half in
+    diameter, fourteen inches in the shank, with a natural curve;
+    the barb, or rather that which answers the purpose of a barb,
+    being supplied by a small piece lashed horizontally across the
+    top of the end of the curve. These peculiar wooden hooks are
+    <i>grown</i>
+
+    ; the roots of a tree called
+    <i>ngiia</i>
+
+    , whose wood is of great toughness, are watched when they
+    protrude from a bank, and trained into the desired shape;
+    specimens of these hooks may be seen in almost any
+    ethnographical museum. To sink the line, coral stones of three
+    or four pounds weight are used, attached by a very thin piece
+    of cinnet or bark, which, when the fish is struck, is always
+    broken by its struggles, and falls off, thus releasing the line
+    from an unnecessary weight. It is no light task hauling in a
+    thick, heavy line, hanging straight up and down for a length of
+    from seventy-five to a hundred fathoms or more!</p>
+
+    <p>Each canoe is manned by four men, only two of whom usually
+    fish, the other two, one at the bow and
+<!-- Page 156 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page151" name="page151">[pg 151]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the other at the stern, being employed in keeping the little
+    craft in a stationary position with their paddles. If, however,
+    there is not much current all four lower their lines, one man
+    working his paddle with one hand so as to keep from drifting.
+    My usual companions were the resident native teacher and two
+    stalwart young natives of the island&#8212;Tulu'ao and Muli'ao;
+    and I may here indulge in a little vanity when I say that my
+    success as a
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    -fisher was regarded as something phenomenal, only one other
+    white man in the group, a trader on the atoll of Funafuti,
+    having ever caught a
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    , or, in fact, tried to catch one. But then I had such
+    beautiful tackle that even the most skilled native fisherman
+    had no chance when competing with me. My lines were of
+    twenty-seven-strand white American cotton, as thick as a small
+    goose-quill, and easily handled, never tangling or twisting
+    like the native cinnet; and my hooks were the admiration and
+    envy of all who saw them. They were of the "flatted" Kirby
+    type, eyed, but with a curve in the shank, which was five
+    inches in length, and as thick as a lead-pencil. I had bought
+    these in Sydney, and during the voyage down had rigged them
+    with snoodings of the very best seizing wire, intending to use
+    them for shark-fishing. I had smaller ones down to three
+    inches, but always preferred using the largest size, as the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    has a large mouth, and it is a difficult matter in a small
+    canoe on a dark night to free a hook embedded in the gullet of
+    a fish which is awkward to handle even when exhausted, and
+    weighing as much as sixty or seventy
+<!-- Page 157 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page152" name="page152">[pg 152]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    pounds; while I also knew that any unusual noise or commotion
+    would be almost sure to attract some of those most dangerous of
+    all night-prowlers of the Pacific, the deep-water blue
+    shark.</p>
+
+    <p>Paddling out due westward from the lee side of the island,
+    where the one village is situated, we would bring-to in about
+    seventy or eighty fathoms. As I always used leaden sinkers, my
+    companions invariably let me lower first to test the depth, as
+    with a two or three-pound lead my comparatively thin line took
+    but little time in running out and touching bottom. A whole
+    flying-fish was used for one bait by the natives, it being tied
+    on to the inner curve of the great wooden hook, whilst I cut
+    one in half, fore-and-aft, and ran my hook through it
+    lengthwise.</p>
+
+    <p>The utmost silence was always observed; and even when
+    lighting our pipes we were always careful not to let the
+    reflection of the flame of the match fall upon the water, on
+    account of the sharks, which would at once be attracted to the
+    canoe, and hover about until they were rewarded for their
+    vigilance by seizing the first
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    brought to the surface. Sometimes a hungry shark will seize the
+    outrigger in his jaws, or get foul of it, and upset the canoe,
+    and a capsize under such circumstances is a serious matter
+    indeed. For this reason the canoes are never far apart from
+    each other; if one should be attacked or disabled by a shark
+    the others at once render assistance, and the shark is usually
+    thrust through with a lance if he is too big to be captured and
+    killed. All haste is then made to get away from the spot,
+    leaving the disturber of the pro
+<!-- Page 158 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page153" name="page153">[pg 153]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    ceedings to be devoured by his companions, whom the scent of
+    blood soon brings upon the scene.</p>
+
+    <p>With ordinary luck we would get our first
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    within an hour of lowering our lines. At such a great depth as
+    eighty or ninety fathoms a bite would scarcely be felt by one
+    of my companions on his thick, heavy, and clumsy line; but on
+    mine it was very different, and there was hardly an occasion on
+    which I did not secure the first fish. Like most
+    bottom-haunting fish in very deep water the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    makes but a brief fight. If he can succeed in "getting his
+    head," he will at once rush into the coral forest amid which he
+    lives, and endeavour to save himself by jamming his body into a
+    cleft or chasm of rock, and let the hook be torn from his jaws,
+    which are soft, boneless, and glutinous. Once, however, he is
+    dragged clear of the coral he seems to lose all heart; and,
+    although he makes an occasional spurt, he grows weaker and
+    weaker as he is dragged toward the surface, and when lifted
+    into the canoe is apparently lifeless, his large eyes literally
+    standing out of his head, and his stomach distended like a
+    balloon. So enormous is the distention of the bladder that
+    sometimes it will protrude from the mouth, and then burst with
+    a noise like a pistol-shot! Perhaps some of my readers will
+    smile at this, but they could see the same thing occur with
+    other deep-sea fish besides the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    . In the Caroline and Marshall Islands there is a species of
+    grey groper which is caught in a depth ranging from one hundred
+    to one hundred and fifty fathoms; these fish, which range up to
+    two hundred pounds, actually burst their
+<!-- Page 159 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page154" name="page154">[pg 154]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    stomachs when brought to the surface; for the air in the
+    cavities of the body expands on the removal of the great
+    pressure which at such depths keeps it compressed.</p>
+
+    <p>Now as to the appearance of the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    . When first caught, and seen by the light of a lantern or
+    torch, it is a dark, silvery grey in colour, with prickly,
+    inverted scales&#8212;like the feathers of a French fowl of a
+    certain breed. The head is somewhat cod-shaped, with eyes quite
+    as large as a crown-piece; the teeth are many, small, and soft,
+    and bend to a firm pressure; and the bones in the fin and tail
+    are so soft and flexible that they may be bent into any shape,
+    but when dried are of the appearance and consistency of
+    gelatine. The length of the largest
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    I have seen was five feet six inches, with a girth of about
+    forty inches. This one was caught in about ninety fathoms of
+    water; and when I opened the stomach I found it to contain five
+    or six undigested fish, about seven inches in length, of the
+    groper species, and for which the natives of the island had no
+    name or knowledge of beyond the appellation
+    <i>ika kehe</i>
+
+    &#8212;"unknown fish"&#8212;that is, fish which are only seen
+    when taken from the stomach of a deep-sea fish, or are brought
+    to the surface or washed ashore after some submarine
+    disturbance.</p>
+
+    <p>The flesh of the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    is greatly valued by the natives of the equatorial islands of
+    the Pacific for its medicinal qualities as a laxative, whilst
+    the oil with which it is permeated is much used as a remedy for
+    rheumatism and similar complaints. Within half an hour of its
+    being taken from the water the skin
+<!-- Page 160 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page155" name="page155">[pg 155]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    changes to a dead black, and the flesh assumes the appearance
+    of whale blubber. Generally, the fish is cooked in the usual
+    native ground-oven as quickly as possible, care being taken to
+    wrap it closely up in the broad leaves of the
+    <i>puraka</i>
+
+    plant&#8212;a species of gigantic taro&#8212;in order that none
+    of the oil may be lost. Thinking that the oil, which is
+    perfectly colourless and with scarcely any odour, might prove
+    of value, I once "tried out" two of the largest fish taken, and
+    obtained a gallon. This I sent to a firm of drug-merchants in
+    Sydney; but unfortunately the vessel was lost on the
+    passage.</p>
+
+    <p>The
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    does not seem to have a wide habitat. In the Tonga Islands it
+    is, I believe, very rare; and in Fiji, Samoa, and other
+    mountainous groups throughout Polynesia the natives appear to
+    have no knowledge of it, although they have a fish possessing
+    the same peculiar characteristics, but of a somewhat different
+    shape. I have fished for it without success at half a dozen
+    places in Samoa, in New Britain, and New Ireland. But it is
+    generally to be found about the coasts of any of the low-lying
+    coral islands of the Union (or Tokelau) Group, the Ellice,
+    Gilbert, Marshall, and part of the Caroline archipelagoes. The
+    Gilbert Islanders call it
+    <i>te ika ne peka</i>
+
+    &#8212;a name that cannot well be translated into bald English,
+    though there is a very lucid Latin equivalent.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1882 I took passage from the Island of Nukufetau in the
+    Ellice Group for the Caroline Islands. The vessel was a fine
+    brigantine of 160 tons, and was named the
+    <i>Orwell</i>
+
+    . She was, unfortunately, com
+<!-- Page 161 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page156" name="page156">[pg 156]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    manded by an incompetent, obstinate, self-willed man, who,
+    though a good seaman, had no meteorological knowledge and
+    succeeded in losing the ship, when lying at anchor, on Peru
+    Island, in the Gilbert Group, ten days after leaving Nukufetau,
+    simply through disregarding the local trader's advice to put to
+    sea. Disastrous as was the incident to me, for I lost trade
+    goods and personal effects to the value of over a thousand
+    pounds, and came ashore with what I stood in&#8212;to wit, a
+    pyjama suit&#8212;and a bag of Chili dollars, I had reason to
+    afterwards congratulate myself from a fisherman's point of
+    view.</p>
+
+    <p>Living on the island was a Swiss, Frank Voliero, whom I have
+    before mentioned. He was an ardent deep-sea fisherman, and was
+    on that account highly respected by the natives, who otherwise
+    did not care for him, as he was of an exceedingly quarrelsome
+    disposition. He was an expert
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    man, and he and I therefore quickly made Island
+    <i>bruderschaft</i>
+
+    . During the three months I remained on Peru we had many
+    fishing trips, and caught not less than fifty
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    . The largest of these was evidently a patriarch, for although
+    he was in rather poor condition he weighed 136 lbs. and was 6
+    feet 10 inches in length. Another, hooked at a depth of
+    eighty-five fathoms, was only 5 feet 2 inches, and weighed 129
+    lbs. Its stomach contained a small octopus with curiously
+    stunted tentacles, almost as thick at the tips as they were at
+    the base, but in all other respects similar to those found in
+    shallow water upon the reefs and in the lagoon.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 162 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page157" name="page157">[pg 157]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Both Voliero and myself tried many kinds of bait for
+    <i>palu,</i>
+
+    believing that the native theory that the fish would only take
+    flying-fish was wrong. We found that on Peru, any elongated
+    fish, such as gars, silvery mullet, or young bonito, were
+    acceptable, and that the tentacle of an octopus, after the
+    outer skin was removed, answered just as well. Yet further
+    southward among the Pacific Isles, flying-fish is the only bait
+    they will take! Evidently, therefore, the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    , at the great depths in which it lives, is attracted by a
+    brightly-hued fish whose habitat is on the surface of the
+    ocean. Why this is so must be decided by ichthyologists, for
+    there are no bright, silvery-scaled fish inhabiting the ocean
+    at such depths as eighty or a hundred fathoms. And why is it
+    that the
+    <i>palu,</i>
+
+    quiescent by day, and feeding only at night, so eagerly seizes
+    a hook baited with a flying-fish&#8212;a fish which never
+    descends more than a few fathoms below the surface, and which
+    the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    can never possibly see except when it is lowered by human hands
+    to, or sinks to the bottom?</p>
+
+    <p>Of the marvellous efficacy of the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    -oil in a case of acute rheumatism I can speak with knowledge.
+    The second mate of an island-trading schooner of which I was
+    the supercargo, was landed at Arorai, in the Line Islands,
+    unable to move, and suffering great agony. After two days'
+    massaging with
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    -oil he recovered and returned to his duties.</p>
+
+    <p>[Since this was written I have learned that Mr. E.R. Waite,
+    of the Sydney Museum, has described the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    as the
+    <i>Ruvettus pretiosus</i>
+
+    , "which hitherto
+<!-- Page 163 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page158" name="page158">[pg 158]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    was known only from the North Atlantic, and whose recorded
+    range is now enormously increased. The Escolar&#8212;to give it
+    its Atlantic name&#8212;has been taken at depths as great as
+    three and four hundred fathoms, but can only be taken at night
+    in September and the early part of October." I should very much
+    like to learn how the
+    <i>palu</i>
+
+    is taken at a depth of four hundred fathoms&#8212;eight hundred
+    yards!]</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 164 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page159" name="page159">[pg 159]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='The_Wily_quotGoannerquot'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>The Wily "Goanner"</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>In the early part of the year 1899 a settler named Hardy,
+    residing at Glenowlan, in the Rylstone district of New South
+    Wales, about 150 miles from Sydney, lost numbers of his lambs
+    during the lambing season. Naturally enough, dingoes were
+    suspected, but none were seen. Then other sheep&#8212;men began
+    to lose lambs, and a close watch was set, with the result that
+    iguanas, which are very numerous in this part of the country,
+    were discovered to be the murderers of the little "baa-baa's."
+    The cause of this new departure in the predatory habits of the
+    "goanner"&#8212;which hitherto had confined his evil deeds to
+    nocturnal visits to the fowl-yards&#8212;is stated to be the
+    extermination of the opossum, which has driven the cunning
+    reptile to seek for another source of food. And, as before the
+    shooting of kangaroos, wallabies, and opossums was resorted to
+    as a means of livelihood by hundreds of bushmen who had no
+    other employment open to them, the young of these marsupials
+    furnished the iguana with an ample supply of food, the theory
+    is very probably correct. Poison will be the only method of
+    destroying or reducing the numbers of the iguana,
+<!-- Page 165 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page160" name="page160">[pg 160]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    who, robber as he is, yet has his good points, as has even the
+    sneaking, blood-loving native cat&#8212;for both are merciless
+    foes to snakes of all kinds; and 'tis better to have an
+    energetic and hungry native cat and a score of wily iguanas
+    working havoc among the tenants of your fowl-house than one
+    brown or an equally deadly "bandy-bandy" snake within half a
+    mile.</p>
+
+    <p>In that part of New South Wales in which the writer was
+    born&#8212;one of the tidal rivers on the northern
+    coast&#8212;both snakes and iguanas were plentiful, and a
+    source of continual worry to the settlers.</p>
+
+    <p>On one occasion some boyish companions and myself set to
+    work to build a raft for fishing purposes out of some old and
+    discarded blue gum rails which were lying along the bank of the
+    river. Boy-like, we utterly disregarded our parents' admonition
+    to put on our boots, and, aided by a couple of blackfellows, we
+    moved about the long grass on our bare feet, picking up the
+    heavy rails and carrying them on our shoulders, one by one,
+    down to the sandy beach, where we were to lash them together.
+    Presently we came across a very heavy rail, about eight feet
+    long, twelve inches in width, and two inches thick. It was no
+    sooner up-ended than we saw half a dozen
+    "bandy-bandies"&#8212;the smallest but most deadly of
+    Australian snakes, not even excepting the
+    death-adder&#8212;lying beneath! We gave a united yell of
+    terror and fled as the black and yellow banded
+    reptiles&#8212;none of which were over eighteen inches in
+    length nor thicker than a man's little finger&#8212;wriggled
+    between our feet into the long grass around
+<!-- Page 166 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page161" name="page161">[pg 161]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    us. For some minutes we were too frightened at our escape to
+    speak; but soon set to work to complete the raft. Presently one
+    of the blackfellows pointed to a tall honeysuckle-tree about
+    fifty feet away, and said with a gleeful chuckle, "Hallo, you
+    see him that 'pfeller goanner been catch him bandy-bandy?"</p>
+
+    <p>Sure enough, an iguana, about three feet in length, was
+    scurrying up the rough, ridgy bark of the honeysuckle with a
+    "bandy-bandy" in his jaws. He had seized the snake by its head,
+    I imagine, for we could see the rest of its form twisting and
+    turning about and enveloping the body of its capturer. In a few
+    seconds we saw the iguana ascend still higher, then he
+    disappeared with his hateful prey among the loftier branches.
+    No doubt he enjoyed his meal.</p>
+
+    <p>About a year or so later I was given another instance of the
+    "cuteness" of the wicked "goanner." My sister (aged twelve) and
+    myself (two years younger) were fishing with bamboo rods for
+    mullet. We were standing, one on each side, of the rocky edges
+    of a tiny little bay on the coast near Port Macquarie (New
+    South Wales). The background was a short, steep beach of soft,
+    snow-white sand, fringed at the high-water margin with a dense
+    jungle of wild apple and pandanus-trees.</p>
+
+    <p>The mullet bit freely, and as we swung the gleaming,
+    bright-silvered fish out of the water on to the rocks on which
+    we stood, we threw them up on to the beach, and left them to
+    kick about and coat themselves with the clean, white
+    sand&#8212;which they did in such an artistic manner that one
+    would imagine
+<!-- Page 167 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page162" name="page162">[pg 162]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    they considered it egg and breadcrumb, and were preparing
+    themselves to fulfil their ultimate and proper use to the
+    <i>genus homo</i>
+
+    .</p>
+
+    <p>My sister had caught seven and I five, when, the sun being
+    amidships, we decided to boil the billy of tea and get
+    something to eat; young mullet, roasted on a glowing fire of
+    honeysuckle cobs were, we knew, very nice. So, laying down our
+    rods on the rocks, we walked up to the beach&#8212;just in time
+    to see two "goanners"&#8212;one of them with a wriggling mullet
+    in his mouth&#8212;scamper off into the bush.</p>
+
+    <p>A careful search revealed the harrowing fact that nine of
+    the twelve fish were missing, and the multitudinous criss-cross
+    tracks on the sand showed the cause of their disappearance. My
+    sister sat down on a hollow log and wept, out of sheer vexation
+    of spirit, while I lit a fire to boil the billy and grill the
+    three remaining mullet. Then after we had eaten the fish and
+    drank some tea, we concocted a plan of deadly revenge. We took
+    four large bream-hooks, bent them on to a piece of
+    fishing-line, baited each hook with a good-sized piece of
+    octopus (our mullet bait), and suspended the line between two
+    saplings, about three inches above the leaf-strewn ground.
+    Then, feeling confident of the success of our murderous device,
+    we finished the billy of tea and went back to our fishing. We
+    caught a couple of dozen or more of fine mullet, each one
+    weighing not less than 1-1/2 lbs.; and then the incoming tide
+    with its sweeping seas drove us from the ledge of rocks to the
+    beach, where we changed our bamboo rods for hand-lines with
+    sinkers,
+<!-- Page 168 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page163" name="page163">[pg 163]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and flung them, baited with chunks of mullet, out into the
+    breaking surf for sea-bream. By four in the afternoon we had
+    caught more fish than we could well carry home, five miles
+    away; and after stringing the mullet and bream through the
+    gills with a strip of supple-jack cane, we went up the beach to
+    our camp for the billy can and basket.</p>
+
+    <p>And then we saw a sight that struck terror into our guilty
+    souls&#8212;a
+    <i>Danse Macabre</i>
+
+    of three writhing black and yellow, long-tailed "goanners,"
+    twisting, turning and lashing their sinuous and scaly tails in
+    agony as they sought to free their widely-opened jaws from the
+    cruel hooks. One had two hooks in his mouth. He was the
+    quietest of the lot, as he had less purchase than the other two
+    upon the ground, and with one hook in his lower and one in his
+    upper jaw, glared upwards at us in his torture and smote his
+    sides with his long, thin tail.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you wicked, wicked boy!" said my partner in
+    guilt&#8212;at once shifting the responsibility of the whole
+    affair upon me&#8212;"you ought to be ashamed of yourself for
+    doing such a thing! You know well enough that we should never
+    hurt a poor, harmless iguana. Oh,
+    <i>do</i>
+
+    take those horrible hooks out of the poor things' mouths and
+    let them go, you wicked, cruel boy!"</p>
+
+    <p>With my heart in my mouth I crept round through the scrub,
+    knife in hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, you horrible, horrible, coward!" screamed my sister;
+    "one would think that the poor things were alligators or
+    sharks. Oh, my goodness, if you're so frightened, I'll come and
+    do it myself." With that
+<!-- Page 169 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page164" name="page164">[pg 164]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    she clambered up into the branches of a pandanus-tree and
+    looked at me excitedly, mingled with considerable contempt and
+    much fear.</p>
+
+    <p>Being quite wise enough not to attempt to take the hooks out
+    of the "goanners'" mouths, I cut the two ends of the line to
+    which they hung. They instantly sought refuge on the tree
+    trunks around them; but as each "goanner" selected his
+    individual tree, and as they were still connected to each other
+    by the line and the hooks in their jaws, their attempts to
+    reach a higher plane was a failure. So they fell to upon one
+    another savagely.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come away, you wicked, thoughtless boy," said my sister,
+    weepingly. "I shall never come out with you again; you cruel
+    thing."</p>
+
+    <p>Then, overcoming my fear, I valiantly advanced, and gingerly
+    extending my arm, cut the tangled-up fishing line in a dozen
+    places; and with my bamboo fishing-rod disintegrated the
+    combatants. They stood for a few seconds, panting and
+    open-mouthed, and then, with the hooks still fast in their
+    jaws, scurried away into the scrub.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 170 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page165" name="page165">[pg 165]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='The_Tanifa_of_Samoa'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>The T&#259;nifa of Samoa</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>Many years ago, at the close of an intensely hot day, I set
+    out from Apia, the principal port of Samoa, to walk to a
+    village named Laulii, a few miles along the coast. Passing
+    through the semi-Europeanised town of Matautu, I emerged out
+    upon the open beach. I was bound on a pigeon-shooting trip to
+    the mountains, but intended sleeping that night at Laulii with
+    some native friends who were to accompany me. With me was a
+    young Manhiki half-caste named Allan Strickland; he was about
+    twenty-two years of age and one of the most perfect specimens
+    of athletic manhood in the South Pacific.
+    <a href="#footnote_15" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[15]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    For six months we had been business partners and comrades in a
+    small cutter in which we traded between Apia and
+    Sava'ii&#8212;the largest island of the Samoan group; and now
+    after some months of toil we were taking a week's holiday
+    together, and enjoying ourselves greatly, although at the time
+    (1873) the country was in the throes of an internecine war.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 171 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page166" name="page166">[pg 166]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    A walk of a mile brought us to the mouth of the Vaivasa River,
+    a small stream flowing into the sea from the littoral on our
+    right. The tide was high and we therefore hailed a picket who
+    were stationed in the trenches on the opposite bank and asked
+    them in a jocular manner not to fire at us while we were wading
+    across. To our surprise, for we were both well known to and on
+    very friendly terms with the contending parties, half a dozen
+    of them sprang up and excitedly bade us not to attempt to
+    cross.</p>
+
+    <p>"Go further up the bank and cross to our
+    <i>olo</i>
+
+    (lines) in a canoe," added a young Manono chief whose family I
+    knew well, "there is a
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    about. We saw it last night."</p>
+
+    <p>That was quite enough for us&#8212;for the name
+    <i>T&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    sent a cold chill down our backs. We turned to the right, and
+    after walking a quarter of a mile came to a hut on the bank at
+    a spot regarded as neutral ground. Here we found some women and
+    children and a canoe, and in less than five minutes we were
+    landed on the other side, the women chorusing the dreadful fate
+    that would have befallen us had we attempted to cross at the
+    mouth of the river.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>E lima gafa le umi!</i>
+
+    " ("'Tis five fathoms long!") cried one old dame.</p>
+
+    <p>"And a fathom wide at the shoulders," said another
+    bare-bosomed lady, with a shudder. "It hath come to the mouth
+    of the Vaivasa because it hath smelt the blood of the three men
+    who were killed in the river here two days ago."</p>
+
+    <p>"We'll hear the true yarn presently," said my
+<!-- Page 172 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page167" name="page167">[pg 167]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    companion as we walked down the left-hand bank of the river.
+    "There must be a
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    cruising about, or else those Manono fellows wouldn't have been
+    so scared at us wanting to cross."</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as we reached the young chief's quarters, we were
+    made very welcome, and were obliged to accept his invitation to
+    remain and share supper with himself and his men&#8212;all
+    stalwart young natives from the little island of Manono&#8212;a
+    lovely spot situated in the straits separating Upolo from
+    Savaii. Placing our guns and bags in the care of one of the
+    warriors, we took our seats on the matted floor, filled our
+    pipes anew, and, whilst a bowl of kava was being prepared,
+    Li'o, the young chief told us about the advent of the
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    .</p>
+
+    <p>Let me first of all, however, explain that the
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    is a somewhat rare and greatly-dreaded member of the
+    old-established shark family. By many white residents in Samoa
+    it was believed to occasionally reach a length of from twenty
+    to twenty-five feet; as a matter of fact it seldom exceeds ten
+    feet, but its great girth, and its solitary, nocturnal habit of
+    haunting the mouths of shallow streams has invested it even to
+    the native mind with fictional powers of voracity and
+    destruction. Yet, despite the exaggerated accounts of the
+    creature, it is really a dreadful monster, rendered the more
+    dangerous to human life by the persistency with which it
+    frequents muddied and shallow water, particularly after a
+    freshet caused by heavy rain, when its presence cannot be
+    discerned.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 173 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page168" name="page168">[pg 168]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Into the port of Apia there fall two small streams&#8212;called
+    "rivers" by the local people&#8212;the Mulivai and the
+    Vaisigago, and I was fortunate to see specimens of the
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    on three occasions, twice at the Vaisigago, and once at the
+    mouth of the Mulivai, but I had never seen one caught, or even
+    sufficiently exposed to give me an idea of its proportions.
+    Many natives, however&#8212;particularly an old Rarotongan
+    named Hapai, who lived in Apia, and was the proud capturer of
+    several
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    &#8212;gave me a reliable description, which I afterwards
+    verified.</p>
+
+    <p>A
+    <i>t&#259;ifa</i>
+
+    ten feet long, they assured me, was an enormously bulky and
+    powerful creature with jaws and teeth much larger than an
+    ocean-haunting shark of double that length; the width across
+    the shoulders was very great, and although it generally swam
+    slowly, it would, when it had once sighted its prey, dart along
+    under the water with great rapidity without causing a ripple.
+    At a village in Savaii, a powerfully built woman who was
+    incautiously bathing at the mouth of a stream was seized by one
+    of these sharks almost before she could utter a cry, so swiftly
+    and suddenly was she attacked. Several attempts were made to
+    capture the brute, which continued to haunt the scene of the
+    tragedy for several days, but it was too cunning to take a hook
+    and was never caught.</p>
+
+    <p>This particular
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    , which had been seen by the young Manono chief and his men on
+    the preceding evening had made its appearance soon after
+    darkness had fallen and had cruised to and fro across the mouth
+    of the Vaivasa till the tide began to fall, when it made
+<!-- Page 174 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page169" name="page169">[pg 169]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    its way seaward through a passage in the reef. It was, so Li'o
+    assured me, quite eight feet in length and very wide across the
+    head and shoulders. The water was clear and by the bright
+    starlight they had discerned its movements very easily; once it
+    came well into the river and remained stationary for some
+    minutes, lying under about two feet of water. Some of the
+    Manono men, hailing a picket of the enemy on the opposite bank
+    of the river, asked for a ten minutes' truce to try and shoot
+    it; this was granted, and standing on top of the sandy trench,
+    half a dozen young fellows fired a volley at the shark from
+    their Sniders. None of the bullets took effect and the
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    sailed slowly off again to cruise to and fro for another hour,
+    watching for any hapless person who might cross the river.</p>
+
+    <p>Just as the kava was being handed round, some children who
+    were on watch cried out that the
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    had come. Springing to his feet, Li'o again hailed the enemy's
+    picket on the other side, and a truce was agreed to, so that
+    "the white men could have a look at the
+    <i>m&#257;lie</i>
+
+    "&#8212;shark.</p>
+
+    <p>Thirty or forty yards away was what seemed to be a huge,
+    irregular and waving mass of phosphorus which, as it drew
+    nearer, revealed the outlines of the dreaded fish. It came in
+    straight for the mouth of the creek, passed over the pebbly
+    bar, and then swam leisurely about in the brackish water,
+    moving from bank to bank at less than a dozen feet from the
+    shore. The stream of bright phosphorescent light which had
+    surrounded its body when it first appeared had now, owing to
+    there being but a minor degree of phos
+<!-- Page 175 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page170" name="page170">[pg 170]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    phorus in the brackish water, given place to a dulled, sickly,
+    greenish reflection, accentuated however by thin, vivid
+    streaks, caused by the exudation from the gills of a streaming,
+    viscid matter, common to some species of sharks, and giving it
+    a truly terrifying and horrible appearance. Presently a couple
+    of natives, taking careful aim, fired at the creature's head;
+    in an instant it darted off with extraordinary velocity,
+    rushing through the water like a submerged comet&#8212;if I may
+    use the illustration. Both of the men who had fired were
+    confident their bullets had struck and badly wounded the shark,
+    but were greatly disgusted when, ten minutes later, it again
+    appeared, swimming leisurely about, at ten fathoms from the
+    beach.</p>
+
+    <p>Three days later, as we were returning to Apia, we were told
+    by our native friends that the shark still haunted the mouth of
+    the Vaivasa; and I determined to capture it. I sent Allan on
+    board the cutter for our one shark hook&#8212;a hook which had
+    done much execution among the sea prowlers. Although not of the
+    largest size, being only ten inches in the shank, it was made
+    of splendid steel, and we had frequently caught fifteen-feet
+    sharks with it at sea. It was a cherished possession with us
+    and we always kept it&#8212;and the four feet of chain to which
+    it was attached&#8212;bright and clean.</p>
+
+    <p>In the evening Allan returned, accompanied by the local
+    pilot (a Captain Hamilton) and the fat, puffing, master of a
+    German barque. They wanted "to see the fun." We soon had
+    everything in readiness; the hook, baited with the
+    belly-portion of a freshly-killed pig
+<!-- Page 176 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page171" name="page171">[pg 171]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    (which the Manono people had commandeered from a bush village)
+    was buoyed to piece of light
+    <i>pua</i>
+
+    wood to keep it from sinking, and then with twenty fathoms of
+    brand-new whale line attached, we let it drift out into the
+    centre of the passage. Then making our end of the line fast to
+    the trunk of a coconut tree, we set some children to watch, and
+    went into the trenches to drink some kava, smoke, and
+    gossip.</p>
+
+    <p>We had not long to wait&#8212;barely half an hour&#8212;when
+    we heard a warning yell from the watchers. The
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    was in sight.</p>
+
+    <p>Jumping up and tumbling over each other in our eagerness we
+    rushed out; but alas! too late for the shark; for instead of
+    approaching in its usual leisurely manner, it made a straight
+    dart at the bait, and before we could free our end of the line
+    it was as taut as an iron bar, and the creature, with the hook
+    firmly fastened in his jaw, was ploughing the water into foam,
+    amid yells of excitement from the natives. Then suddenly the
+    line fell slack, and the half-a-dozen men who were holding it
+    went over on their backs, heels up.</p>
+
+    <p>In mournful silence we hauled it in, and then, oh woe! the
+    hook, our prized, our beautiful hook, was gone! and with it two
+    feet of the chain, which had parted at the centre swivel. That
+    particular
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    was seen no more.</p>
+
+    <p>Nearly two months later, two
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    of a much larger size, appeared at the mouth of the Vaivasa.
+    Several of the white residents tried, night after night, to
+    hook them, but the monsters refused to look at
+<!-- Page 177 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page172" name="page172">[pg 172]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the baits. Then appeared on the scene an old one-eyed Malay
+    named 'Reo, who asserted he could kill them easily. The way in
+    which he set to work was described to me by the natives who
+    witnessed the operations. Taking a piece of green bamboo, about
+    four feet in length, he split from it two strips each an inch
+    wide. The ends of these he then, after charring the points,
+    sharpened carefully; then by great pressure he coiled them up
+    into as small a compass as possible, keeping the whole in
+    position by sewing the coil up in the fresh skin of a fish
+    known as the
+    <i>isuumu moana</i>
+
+    &#8212;a species of the "leather-jacket." Then he asked to be
+    provided with two dogs. A couple of curs were soon provided,
+    killed, and the viscera removed. The coils of bamboo were then
+    placed in the vacancy and the skin of the bellies stitched up
+    with small wooden skewers. That completed the preparation of
+    the baits.</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as the two sharks made their appearance, one of the
+    dead dogs was thrown into the water. It was quickly swallowed.
+    Then the second followed, and was also seized by the other
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    . The creatures cruised about for some hours, then went off, as
+    the tide began to fall.</p>
+
+    <p>On the following evening they did not turn up, nor on the
+    next; but the Malay insisted that within four or five days both
+    would be dead. As soon as the dogs were digested, he said, the
+    thin fish-skin would follow, the bamboo coil would fly apart,
+    and the sharpened ends penetrate not only the sharks'
+    intestines, but protrude through the outer skin as well.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 178 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page173" name="page173">[pg 173]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Quite a week afterwards, during which time neither of the
+    <i>t&#259;nifa</i>
+
+    had been seen alive, the smaller of the two was found dead on
+    the beach at Vailele Plantation, about four miles from the
+    Vaivasa. It was examined by numbers of people, and presented an
+    extremely interesting sight; one end of the bamboo spring was
+    protruding over a foot from the belly, which was so cut and
+    lacerated by the agonised efforts of the monster to free itself
+    from the instrument of torture, that much of the intestines was
+    gone.</p>
+
+    <p>That the larger of these dreaded fish had died in the same
+    manner there was no reason to doubt; but probably it had sunk
+    in the deep water outside the barrier reef.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 179 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page174" name="page174">[pg 174]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='On_Board_the_quotTucopiaquot'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>On Board the "Tucopia."</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>The little island trading barque
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    , Henry Robertson, master, lay just below Garden Island in
+    Sydney Harbour, ready to sail for the Friendly Islands and
+    Samoa as soon as the captain came on board. At nine o'clock, as
+    Bruce, the old, white-haired, Scotch mate, was pointing out to
+    Mrs. Lacy and the Reverend Wilfrid Lacy the many ships around,
+    and telling them from whence they came or where they were
+    bound, the second mate called out&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Here's the captain's boat coming, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>Bruce touched his cap to the pale-faced, violet-eyed
+    clergyman's wife, and turning to the break of the poop, at once
+    gave orders to "heave short," leaving the field clear to Mr.
+    Charles Otway, the supercargo of the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    , who was twenty-two years of age, had had seven years'
+    experience of general wickedness in the South Seas, thought he
+    was in love with Mrs. Lacy, and that, before the barque reached
+    Samoa, he would make the lady feel that the Reverend Wilfrid
+    was a serious mistake, and that he, Charles Otway, was the one
+    man in the world whom she could love and be happy with for
+    ever. So, being a hot-blooded
+<!-- Page 180 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page175" name="page175">[pg 175]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and irresponsible young villain, though careful and decorous to
+    all outward seeming, he set himself to work, took exceeding
+    care over his yellow, curly hair, and moustache, and abstained
+    from swearing in Mrs. Lacy's hearing.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>A week before, Mr. and Mrs. Lacy had called at the owner's
+    office and inquired about a passage to Samoa in the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    , and Otway was sent for.</p>
+
+    <p>"Otway," said the junior partner, "can you make room on the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    for two more passengers&#8212;nice people, a clergyman and his
+    wife."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&#8212;&#8212;all nice people, especially clergymen and
+    their wives," he answered promptly&#8212;for although the
+    youngest supercargo in the firm, he was considered, the
+    smartest&#8212;and took every advantage of the fact. "I'm sick
+    of carting these confounded missionaries about, Mr. Harry. Last
+    trip we took two down to Tonga&#8212;beastly hymn-grinding
+    pair, who wanted the hands to come aft every night to prayers,
+    and played-up generally with the discipline of the ship.
+    Robertson never interfered, and old Bruce, who is one of the
+    psalm-singing kidney himself, encouraged the beasts to turn the
+    ship into a floating Bethel."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Harry" laughed good-naturedly. "Otway, my boy, you
+    mustn't put on so much side&#8212;the firm can't afford it. If
+    you hadn't drunk so much whisky last night you would be in a
+    better temper this morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, if you've got some one else to take my billet
+<!-- Page 181 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page176" name="page176">[pg 176]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    on the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    , why don't you say so, instead of backing and filling about,
+    like a billy-goat in stays?
+    <i>I</i>
+
+    don't care a damn if you load the schooner up to her maintop
+    with sky-pilots and their dowdy women-kind. I've had enough of
+    'em, and I hereby tender you my resignation. I can get another
+    and a better ship to-morrow, if&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sit down, you cock-a-hoopy young ass," and "Mr. Harry" hit
+    the supercargo a good-humoured but stiff blow in the chest.
+    "These people aren't missionaries; they're a cut above the
+    usual breed. Man's a gentleman; woman's as sweet as a rosebud.
+    Now look here, Otway; we give you a pretty free hand generally,
+    but in this instance we want you to stretch a point&#8212;you
+    can give these people berths in the trade-room, can't you?"</p>
+
+    <p>The supercargo considered a moment. "There's a lot returning
+    this trip. First, there's the French priest for Wallis
+    Island&#8212;nice old buffer, but never washes, and grinds his
+    teeth in his sleep&#8212;he's in the cabin next to mine; old
+    Miss Wiedermann for Tonga&#8212;cabin on starboard
+    side&#8212;fussy old cat, who is always telling me that she can
+    distinctly hear Robertson's bad language on deck. But her
+    brother is a good sort, and so I put up with her. Then there's
+    Captain Burr, in the skipper's cabin, two Samoan half-caste
+    girls in the deck-house&#8212;there's going to be trouble over
+    those women, old Bruce says, and I don't doubt it&#8212;and the
+    whole lot will have their meals in the beastly dog-kennel you
+    call a saloon, and I call a sweat-box."</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 182 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page177" name="page177">[pg 177]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Thank you, Mr. Otway. Your elegant manner of speaking shows
+    clearly the refining influence of the charming people with whom
+    you associate. Just let me tell you this&#8212;you looked like
+    a gentleman a year or two ago, but become less like one every
+    day."</p>
+
+    <p>"No wonder," replied Otway sullenly, "the Island trade is
+    not calculated to turn out Chesterfields. I'm sick enough of
+    it, now we are carrying passengers as well as cargo. I suppose
+    the firm will be asking us supercargoes to wear uniform and
+    brass buttons soon, like the ticket collector on a penny
+    ferry."</p>
+
+    <p>"Quite likely, my sulky young friend&#8212;quite likely, if
+    it will pay us to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I'll clear out, and go nigger-catching again in the
+    Solomons. That's a lot better than having to be civil to people
+    who worry the soul out of you, are always in the way at sea,
+    and a beastly nuisance in port. Why, do you know what old Miss
+    Weidermann did at Manono, in Samoa, when we were there buying
+    yams three months ago?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; what did she do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Got the skipper and myself into a howling mess through her
+    infernal interference; and if the chiefs and old Mataafa
+    himself had not come to our help there would have been some
+    shooting, and this firm could never have sent another ship to
+    Manono again. It makes me mad when I think of it&#8212;the
+    silly old bundle of propriety and feminine spite."</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell me all about it, Otway. 'Twill do you good, I can see,
+    to unburden yourself of some of your
+<!-- Page 183 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page178" name="page178">[pg 178]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    bad temper. Shut that door, and we'll have a brandy-and-soda
+    together."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Otway, "this is what occurred. I was ashore in
+    the village, buying and weighing the yams, the skipper was
+    lending me a hand, and everything was going on bully, when
+    Mataafa and his chiefs sent an invitation to us to come up to
+    his house and drink kava. Of course such an invitation from the
+    native point of view was a great honour; and then, besides
+    that, it was good business to keep in with old Mataafa, who had
+    just given the Germans a thrashing at Vailele, and was as proud
+    as a dog with two tails. So, although I hate kava, I accepted
+    the invitation with 'many expressions of pleasure,' and felt
+    sure that as the old fellow knew me of old, and I knew he
+    wanted to buy some rifles, that I should get the bulk of a bag
+    of sovereigns his mongrel, low-down American secretary was
+    carrying around. So oft went the skipper and I, letting the
+    yams stand over till we returned; the barque was lying about a
+    mile off the beach. Mataafa was very polite to us, and during
+    the kava drinking I found out that he had about three hundred
+    sovereigns, and wanted to see the Martini-Henrys we had on
+    board. Of course I told him that it would be a serious business
+    for the ship if he gave us away&#8212;imprisonment in a
+    dreadful dungeon in Fiji, if not hanging at the yard-arm or a
+    man-of-war&#8212;and the old cock winked his eye and laughed.
+    Then, as time was valuable, we at once concocted a plan to get
+    the rifles&#8212;fifty&#8212;ashore without making too much of
+    a show. Well,
+<!-- Page 184 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page179" name="page179">[pg 179]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    among some of the women present there were two great swells,
+    one was the
+    <i>taupo</i>
+
+    , or town maid, of Palaulae in Savaii, and the other was a
+    niece of Mataafa himself. These two, accompanied by a lot of
+    young women of Manono, were to go off on board the barque in
+    our boats, ostensibly to pay their respects to the white lady
+    on board, and invite her on shore, so as to get her out of the
+    way; then I was to pass the arms out of the stern ports into
+    some canoes which would be waiting just as it became dark.
+    About five o'clock they started off in one boat, leaving me and
+    the skipper to follow in another. I had sent a note off to the
+    mate telling him all about the little game, and to be mighty
+    polite to the two chief women, who were to be introduced to
+    Miss Weidermann, give the old devil some presents of mats,
+    fruits, and such things, and ask her to come ashore as
+    Mataafa's guest.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, something had gone wrong with the Weidermann's
+    temper; for when the women came on board she was sulking in her
+    cabin, and refused to show her vinegary face outside her
+    state-room door. Thinking she would get over her tantrum in a
+    few minutes, the mate invited the two Samoan ladies and their
+    attendants down into the cabin, where they awaited her
+    appearance, behaving themselves, of course, very decorously, it
+    being a visit of ceremony.</p>
+
+    <p>"Presently Old Cat-face opened her door, and then, without
+    giving the native ladies time to utter a word, she launched out
+    at them in her bastard-mongrel Samoan-Tongan. The first thing
+    she said was that she knew the kind of women they were, and
+    what
+<!-- Page 185 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page180" name="page180">[pg 180]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    had brought them on board! How dared such brazen, shameless
+    cattle come into the cabin! Into the same cabin as a white
+    lady! The bold, half-naked, disgraceful hussies, etc., etc. And
+    then she capped the thing by calling to the steward to come and
+    drive them out!</p>
+
+    <p>"Not one of the native women could answer her. They were all
+    simply dumbfounded at such a gross insult, and left the cabin
+    in silence. The mate tried to smooth things over, but one of
+    the women&#8212;Mataafa's niece&#8212;gave him a look that told
+    him to say no more. In half an hour the whole lot of them were
+    back on the beach, and came up to the chiefs house, where the
+    skipper and myself were having a final drink of kava with old
+    Mataafa and his
+    <i>faipule</i>
+
+    .
+    <a href="#footnote_16" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[16]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    The face of the elder of the two women was blazing with anger,
+    and then, pointing to the captain and myself, she gave us such
+    a tongue-lashing for sending her off to the ship to be shamed
+    and insulted, that made us blush. Old Mataafa waited until she
+    had finished, and then, with an ugly gleam in his eye but
+    speaking very quietly, asked us what it meant.</p>
+
+    <p>"What
+    <i>could</i>
+
+    we say but that it was no fault of ours; and then, by a happy
+    inspiration, I added that although Miss Weidermann was
+    generally well-conducted enough, she sometimes got blazing
+    drunk, and made a beast of herself. This explanation satisfied
+    the chiefs, if not the women, and everything went on
+<!-- Page 186 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page181" name="page181">[pg 181]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    smoothly. And as it was then nearly dark, and I was determined
+    that Mataafa should get his rifles, half a dozen of his men
+    took us off in their canoes, and we went on board. The skipper
+    and I had fixed up as to what we should do with the Weidermann
+    creature. She was seated at the cabin table waiting to open out
+    on us, but the skipper didn't give her a chance.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Go to your cabin at once, madam,' he said solemnly, 'and I
+    trust you will not again leave it in your present condition.
+    Your conduct is simply astounding.
+    <i>Steward, see that you give Miss Weidermann no more grog</i>
+
+    .'</p>
+
+    <p>"The poor old girl thought that either he or she herself was
+    going mad, but he gave her no time to talk. The captain opened
+    her state-room door, gently pushed her in, and put a man
+    outside to see that she didn't come out again. Then we handed
+    out the rifles through the stern-ports to the natives in the
+    canoes, and sent them away rejoicing. And that's the end of the
+    yarn, and Miss Weidermann nearly went into a fit next morning
+    when we told her that no less than thirty respectable native
+    women had taken their oaths that she was mad drunk, and abused
+    them vilely."</p>
+
+    <p>The junior partner laughed loudly at the story, and Otway,
+    with a more amiable look on his face, rose.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'll do what I can for these people. I'll make room
+    for them somehow. Where are they going?"</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 187 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page182" name="page182">[pg 182]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Samoa. They have an idea of settling down there, I think, for a
+    few months, and then going on to China. They have plenty of
+    money, apparently."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, well, tell them to come on board to-morrow, and I'll
+    show them what can be done for them."</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>So the Rev. and Mrs. Lacy did come on board, and Mr. Charles
+    Otway was vanquished by just one single glance from the lady's
+    violet eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>"It would have been such a dreadful disappointment to us if
+    we could not have obtained passages in the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    ," she said, in her soft, sweet voice, as she sank back in the
+    deck-chair he placed before her. "My husband is so bent on
+    making a tour through Samoa. Now, do tell me, Mr. Otway, are
+    these islands so very lovely?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very, very lovely, Mrs. Lacy," replied Otway, leaning with
+    his back against the rail and regarding her with half-closed
+    eyes; "as sweet and fair to look upon as a lovely woman&#8212;a
+    woman with violet eyes and lips like a budding rose."</p>
+
+    <p>She gave him one swift glance, seemingly in anger, yet her
+    eyes smiled into his; then she bent her head and regarded the
+    deck with intense interest. Otway thought he had scored. She
+    was sure
+    <i>she</i>
+
+    had.</p>
+
+    <p>Otway had just shown her and her husband his own cabin, and
+    had told them that they could occupy it&#8212;he would make
+    himself comfortable in the trade-room, he said. This was after
+    the first look from the violet eyes.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 188 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page183" name="page183">[pg 183]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Robertson, the skipper, came aboard, shook hands with Mrs. Lacy
+    and her husband, nodded to the other passengers, dived below
+    for a moment or two, and then reappeared on deck, full of
+    energy, blasphemy, and anxiety to get under way. In less than
+    an hour the smart barque was outside the Heads, and heeling
+    over to a brisk south-westerly breeze. Two days later she was
+    four hundred miles on her course.</p>
+
+    <p>The Rev. Wilfrid Lacy soon made himself very agreeable to
+    the rest of the passengers, who all agreed that he was a
+    splendid type of parson, and even Otway, who had as much
+    principle as a rat and began making love to his wife from the
+    outset, liked him. First of all, he was not the usual style of
+    travelling clergyman. He didn't say grace at meals, he smoked a
+    pipe, drank whisky and brandy with Otway and Robertson, told
+    rattling good stories, and displayed an immediate interest when
+    the skipper mentioned that the second mate was a "bit of a
+    bruiser," and that there were gloves on board; and the second
+    mate, a nuggety little Tynesider, at once consented to a
+    friendly mill as soon as he was off duty.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wilfrid," said Mrs. Lacy, "you'll shock every one. I can
+    see that Captain Robertson wonders what sort of a clergyman you
+    are."</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson saw the merry light in her dark eyes, and then
+    laughed aloud as he saw Miss Weidermann's face. It expressed
+    the very strongest disapproval, and during the rest of the meal
+    the virgin lady preserved a dismal silence. The rest of the
+    passengers, however, "took" to the clerical gentleman at once.
+    With
+<!-- Page 189 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page184" name="page184">[pg 184]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    old Father Roget&#8212;the Marist missionary who sat opposite
+    him&#8212;he soon entered into an animated conversation, while
+    the two De Boos girls, vivacious Samoan half-castes, attached
+    themselves to his wife. Seated beside Otway was another
+    passenger, an American skipper named Burr, who was going to
+    Apia to take command of a vessel belonging to the same firm as
+    the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    . He was a silent, good-looking man of about sixty, and
+    possessed of much caustic humour and a remarkable fund of
+    smoking-room stories, which, on rare occasions, he would relate
+    in an inimitable, drawling manner, as if he was tired. The
+    chief mate was a deeply but not obtrusively religious Scotsman;
+    the second officer, Allen, was a young man of thirty, an
+    excellent seaman, but rough to the verge of brutality with the
+    crew. Bruce, on the other hand, was too easy-going and
+    patient.</p>
+
+    <p>"I never want to raise my hand against a man," he said one
+    day, as a protest, when Allen gave one of the crew an
+    unmerciful cuff which sent him down as if he had been shot.</p>
+
+    <p>"Neither do I," replied Allen, "I prefer raising my foot.
+    But it's habit, Mr. Bruce, only habit."</p>
+
+    <p>For five days the barque ran steadily on an E.N.E. course,
+    then on the sixth day the wind hauled, and by sunset it was
+    blowing hard from the eastward with a fast-gathering sea. By
+    two in the morning Robertson and his officers knew that they
+    were in for a three-days' easterly gale; a few hours later it
+    was decided to heave-to, as the sea had become dangerous, and
+    the
+<!-- Page 190 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page185" name="page185">[pg 185]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    little vessel was straining badly. Just after this had been
+    done, the gale set in with redoubled fury, and when Mrs. Lacy
+    came on deck shortly before breakfast, she shuddered at the
+    wild spectacle. Coming to the break of the poop, she clasped
+    the iron rail with both hands, and gazed fearfully about
+    her.</p>
+
+    <p>"You had better go below, ma'am," said the second mate, who
+    was standing near, talking to Otway, "there's some nasty, lumpy
+    seas."</p>
+
+    <p>Then he gave a yell.</p>
+
+    <p>"Look out there!"</p>
+
+    <p>Springing to Mrs. Lacy's side, he clasped his left arm
+    around her waist, and held on tightly to the iron rail with his
+    right, just as a vast mountain of water took the barque
+    amidships, fell on her deck with terrific force, and fairly
+    buried her from the topgallant foc'scle to the level of the
+    poop. In less than half a minute the galley, for'ard
+    deck-house, long-boat, which was lying on the main hatch, and
+    the port bulwarks had vanished, together with three poor seamen
+    who were asleep in the deck-house. The fearful crash brought
+    the captain flying on deck. One glance showed him that there
+    was no chance of saving the men&#8212;to attempt to lower a
+    boat in such a sea was utterly impossible, and would be madness
+    itself. He sighed, and then took off his cap. Allen and Otway
+    followed his example.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is there no hope for them?" Mrs. Lacy whispered to
+    Otway.</p>
+
+    <p>"None," replied the supercargo in a low voice. "None." Then
+    he urged her to go below, as it was not safe for her to remain
+    on deck. She went at once,
+<!-- Page 191 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page186" name="page186">[pg 186]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and met her husband just as he was leaving their cabin.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is the matter, Nell?" he asked, as he saw that tears
+    were in her eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>"Three poor men have been carried overboard, Wilfrid. They
+    were in the deck-house asleep ten minutes ago&#8212;now they
+    are gone! Oh, isn't it dreadful, dreadful!" And then she sat
+    down beside him and wept silently.</p>
+
+    <p>Breakfast was a forlorn meal&#8212;Robertson and his
+    officers were not present, and Otway took the captain's seat.
+    He, too, only remained to drink a cup of coffee, then hurriedly
+    went on deck. Lacy rose at the same time, but at the foot of
+    the companion, Otway motioned him to stop.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't come on deck awhile, if you please," he said, "and
+    tell the ladies to keep to the cabin."</p>
+
+    <p>"Anything fresh gone wrong?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," replied the supercargo, looking steadily at the
+    clergyman&#8212;"the ship is making water badly. Don't you hear
+    the pumps going? Tell the ladies not to come on deck&#8212;say
+    it is not safe. And if the old Weidermann girl hears the pumps,
+    and gets inquisitive, tell her that a lot of water got into the
+    hold when that big sea tumbled aboard. She's an inquisitive old
+    ass, and would be bound to tell the other ladies that the ship
+    is in danger."</p>
+
+    <p>Lacy nodded. "All right, I'll see to her. How long has the
+    ship been leaking?"</p>
+
+    <p>"For quite a long time. And there is fourteen inches in her,
+    and it's as much as we can do to keep it under."</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 192 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page187" name="page187">[pg 187]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    That is serious."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway nodded. "Yes, it is serious in weather like this. Now
+    I must go. Daresay we may give you a call in the course of the
+    morning. Ever try a spell at old-fashioned brake pumps? Fine
+    exercise."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm ready now if you want me," was the quiet answer.</p>
+
+    <p>The
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    was indeed in a pretty bad case. Immediately after the fatal
+    sea had swept her decks the carpenter had sounded the well and
+    found fifteen inches of water, some little of which had got
+    below through the fore-scuttle, but the greater portion, it was
+    soon evident, was the result of a leak. The barque was a
+    comparatively new vessel, and Robertson and his officers, after
+    two hours' pumping, came to the conclusion that she had either
+    strained herself badly or a butt-end had started somewhere.</p>
+
+    <p>For two hours the crew worked at the pumps, taking a spell
+    of ten minutes every half-hour, Otway, the American captain
+    Burr, and Mr. Lacy all lending a hand. Then the well was
+    sounded, and showed two inches less.</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson ordered the men to come aft and get a glass of
+    grog. They trooped down into the cabin wet and exhausted, and
+    the steward served them each out half a tumblerful of good
+    French brandy. They drank it off, and then went on deck again
+    to have a smoke before resuming pumping. A quarter of an hour
+    later the pumps choked. There were a hundred tons of coal in
+    the lower hold, and some of the small of it had been drawn up.
+    By the time the carpenter had
+<!-- Page 193 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page188" name="page188">[pg 188]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    them cleared the water had gained seven inches, and the little
+    barque was labouring heavily. Again, however, the willing crew
+    turned to and pumped steadily for another hour, but only
+    succeeded in reducing the water by an inch or two. Then
+    Robertson called his officers together and consulted.</p>
+
+    <p>"We can't keep on like this much longer," he said, "the
+    water is gaining on us too fast. And we can't run before such a
+    sea as this, in our condition; we should be pooped in less than
+    five minutes. We shall have to take to the boats in another
+    couple of hours, unless a change takes place. Mr. Allen, and
+    you, Mr. Otway, see to the two boats, and get them in
+    readiness."</p>
+
+    <p>Then he went below to the passengers. They were all seated
+    in the main cabin, and looked anxiously at him as he
+    entered.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am sorry to tell you, ladies," he said quietly, "that the
+    ship is leaking so badly that I fear we shall have to abandon
+    her. The men cannot keep on pumping much longer, now that we
+    are three hands short. Fortunately we have two good boats, and,
+    if we must take to them, shall have no trouble in reaching
+    land."</p>
+
+    <p>They heard him in silence, then the old priest opened his
+    state-room door, and came out.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is bad news indeed, captain," he said gently. "Still
+    we must bow to God's will, and trust to His guidance and
+    protection. And you and your officers and crew are good and
+    brave seamen."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you, father. We'll do all right if we
+<!-- Page 194 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page189" name="page189">[pg 189]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    have to take to the boats. And you must try and cheer up the
+    ladies. Now I must leave you all for awhile. We will stick to
+    the pumps for another hour or two."</p>
+
+    <p>"Captain," said Sarah de Boos, a tall, finely built young
+    woman of twenty, "let my sister and myself and our servant help
+    the men at the pump.
+    <i>Do</i>
+
+    , please. We are all three very strong, and our help is surely
+    worth having."</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson patted her soft cheek with his big, sunburnt hand.
+    "You are your father's daughter, Sarah, and I thank you. Of
+    course your help would be something; three fine lusty young
+    women"&#8212;he tried to smile&#8212;"but it's too dangerous
+    for you to be on deck. All the bulwarks are gone, and nasty
+    lumping seas come aboard every now and then."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm not afraid of a life-line hurting my waist," was the
+    prompt answer, "and neither is Sukie&#8212;are you Sukie? Go on
+    deck, captain, and Sukie and I and Mina" (the servant) "will
+    just kick off our boots and follow you."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I too," broke in old Father Roget. "Surely I am not too
+    old to help."</p>
+
+    <p>In less than five minutes the two half-caste girls, the
+    native woman Mina, and the old priest, were working the
+    starboard brake, three seamen being on the lee side. Every now
+    and then, as the barque took a heavy roll to windward, the
+    water would flood her deck up to the workers' knees; but they
+    stuck steadily to their task for half an hour, when they gave
+    place
+<!-- Page 195 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page190" name="page190">[pg 190]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    to Burr, the carpenter, the Rev. Wilfrid, and three native
+    seamen.</p>
+
+    <p>In the cabin Mrs. Lacy sat with ashen-hued face beside Miss
+    Weidermann, their hands clasped together, and listening to the
+    wild clamour of the wind and sea. Presently the two De Boos
+    girls, Lacy, Father Roget, and Mina, came below to rest awhile,
+    the water streaming from their sodden garments. The old priest,
+    thoroughly exhausted, threw himself down upon the transom
+    locker cushions.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wilfrid," said Mrs. Lacy coming over to him and placing her
+    shaking hand on his shoulder, "cannot I do something? Oh, Miss
+    De Boos, I wish I were brave, like you. But I am not&#8212;I am
+    a coward, and I hate myself for it."</p>
+
+    <p>The Rev. Wilfrid smiled tenderly at her as he drew her to
+    him for a moment. "Don't worry, little woman. You can't do
+    anything&#8212;yes, you can, though! Get me my pipe and fill it
+    for me. My hands are wet and cramped."</p>
+
+    <p>Sukie De Boos, whose firm, rounded bosom and strong square
+    shoulders made a startling contrast, as they revealed their
+    shape under her soddened blouse, to Mrs. Lacy's fragile figure,
+    impulsively put her hands out, and taking Mrs. Lacy's face
+    between them, kissed her twice.</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear Mrs. Lacy," she said, "don't be frightened, please.
+    Now get Mr. Lacy's pipe, and I'll rummage the steward's pantry
+    and get some food for us all to eat. Mr. Otway told me to tell
+    you and Miss Weidermann to eat something, as maybe we may not
+    get anything
+<!-- Page 196 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page191" name="page191">[pg 191]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    for some hours. So I'm just going to stay here and see that
+    every one
+    <i>does</i>
+
+    eat. I'll set you a good example."</p>
+
+    <p>In a few minutes she laid upon the table an assortment of
+    tinned meats, bread, and some bottled beer, and some brandy for
+    Father Roget and Lacy. Otway came down, followed by the
+    steward, and nodded approval.</p>
+
+    <p>"That's right, Sukie. Eat as much as you can. I'll take a
+    drink myself. Here's luck to you, Sukie. Perhaps we won't have
+    to make up a boating party after all. But there's nothing like
+    being ready. So will you, Mr. Lacy, lend a hand here with the
+    steward, and pass up our provisions to the second mate? The
+    captain will be down in a minute, and will tell you ladies what
+    clothing to get ready. For my part I'll be jolly glad if we do
+    have to take to the boats, where we shall be nice and comfy,
+    instead of rolling about in this beastly way&#8212;I'll be
+    sea-sick in another ten minutes. Old Bruce says he felt sick an
+    hour ago. Come on, steward."</p>
+
+    <p>The assumed cheerfulness of his manner produced a good
+    effect, and even old Miss Weidermann plucked up heart a little
+    as she saw him nonchalantly light a cigar as he disappeared
+    with the steward below into the lazzarette.</p>
+
+    <p>On deck Robertson and the mate were talking in low tones, as
+    they assisted the second mate with the boats. There was now
+    nearly three feet of water in the hold, and every one knew that
+    the barque could not keep afloat much longer. Fortunately the
+<!-- Page 197 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page192" name="page192">[pg 192]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    violence of the wind had decreased somewhat, though there was
+    still a mountainous sea.</p>
+
+    <p>Both the old mate and the captain knew that the two small
+    quarter boats would be dangerously overladen, and their
+    unspoken fears were shared by the rest of the officers and
+    crew. But another hour would perhaps make a great difference;
+    and then as the two men were speaking a savage sea smote the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    on the starboard bow, with such violence that she trembled in
+    every timber, and as she staggered under the shock and then
+    rolled heavily to windward, she dipped the starboard quarter
+    boat under the water; it filled, and as she rose again, boat
+    and davits went away together.</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson groaned and looked at the mate.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is God's will, sir," said the old Scotsman quietly.</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson nodded. "Tell Allen and the others to come here,"
+    he said.</p>
+
+    <p>The Tynesider, followed by Captain Burr, Otway, and the
+    carpenter, came.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Allen," said the captain, "you are the best man in such
+    an emergency as this. You handle a boat better than any man I
+    know. There is now only one boat left, and you must take charge
+    of her. You will have to take a big lot of people&#8212;the
+    four women, the parson, the old French priest, Mr. Otway,
+    Captain Burr, the carpenter, and the five men."</p>
+
+    <p>"I guess I'll stand out, and stick to the ship," said Burr
+    in a lazy, drawling manner, "I don't like bein' crowded up with
+    a lot of wimmen."</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 198 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page193" name="page193">[pg 193]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Neither do I, said Otway.</p>
+
+    <p>"Same here, captain," said the carpenter, a little grizzled
+    man of sixty.</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson shook hands with each of them in turn. "I knew you
+    were
+    <i>men</i>
+
+    ," he said simply. "Come below and let's have a drink together,
+    and then see to the boat."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's all this, skipper?" said Allen, with an oath, "d'ye
+    think I'm going to save my carcase and let you men drown? I'll
+    see you all damned first!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You'll obey orders," growled the captain, "and my orders
+    are that you take charge of that boat. And don't give me any
+    lip. You are a married man and have children. None of us who
+    are standing by the ship are married men. By God, my joker, if
+    you don't know your duty, I'll teach you. Are you going to let
+    these four women go adrift in a boat to perish when you can
+    save them?"</p>
+
+    <p>Allen looked the captain squarely in the face and then put
+    out his hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand you, sir. But I don't like doing it. The ship
+    won't keep afloat another hour. But, as you say, I've a wife
+    and kids to consider."</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Followed by the others, Robertson went below, and told his
+    passengers to get ready for the boat. The old French priest,
+    exhausted by his labour at the pumps, was still lying on the
+    transom cushions, sleeping; the Rev. Lacy was seated at the
+    table smoking his pipe (all the ladies were in their
+    state-rooms). He rose as the men entered, and looked at them
+    inquiringly.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 199 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page194" name="page194">[pg 194]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    We're in a bit of a tight place," said the captain, as he
+    coolly poured out half a tumblerful of brandy, "but I'm sending
+    you, Mr. Lacy, and Father Roget, and the ladies away with Mr.
+    Allen in one of the boats. Allen is a man whom I rely upon.
+    He'll bring you ashore safely. He's a bit rough in his talk,
+    but he's one of God's own chosen in a boat, and a fine sailor
+    man&#8212;better than the mate, Captain Burr, or myself; isn't
+    that so, Mr. Bruce?"</p>
+
+    <p>The white-haired old mate bent his head in acknowledgment.
+    Then he stood up stiff and stark, his rough bony hands clasped
+    upon his chest.</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll no' deny but that Mr. Allen is far and awa' the best
+    man to have charge o' the boat. But as there is a meenister
+    here, surely he will now offer up a prayer to the Almighty for
+    those in peril on the sea, and especially implore Him to
+    consider a sma' boat, deep to the gunwales."</p>
+
+    <p>He looked at the clergyman, who at first made no reply, but
+    stood with downcast eyes. The men looked at him expectantly; he
+    put one hand on the table, and then slowly raised his face.</p>
+
+    <p>"I think, gentlemen, that ... that Father Roget is the older
+    man." He spoke haltingly, and a flush dyed his smooth,
+    clean-shaven face from brow to chin. "Will you not ask him?"
+    Then his eyes dropped again.</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson, who was in a hurry, and yet had a sincere but
+    secret respect for old Bruce's unobtrusive religious feelings,
+    now backed up his mate's request.</p>
+
+    <p>"I think, sir, that as the mate says, a bit of a short
+<!-- Page 200 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page195" name="page195">[pg 195]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    prayer would not be out of place just now, seeing the mess we
+    are in. And that poor old gentleman over there is too done up
+    to stand on his feet. So will you please begin, sir. Steward,
+    call the ladies. We can no longer disguise from them, Mr. Lacy,
+    that we are in a bad way&#8212;as bad a way as I have ever been
+    in during my thirty years at sea."</p>
+
+    <p>In a couple of minutes the two De Boos girls, Miss
+    Weidermann, and the native girl Mina, came out of their cabins;
+    and when the steward said that Mrs. Lacy felt too ill to leave
+    her berth, her husband could not help giving an audible sigh of
+    relief. Then he braced up and spoke with firmness.</p>
+
+    <p>"Please shut Mrs. Lacy's door, steward. Mr. Bruce, will you
+    lend me your church service&#8212;I do not want to go into my
+    cabin for my own. My wife, I fear, has given way."</p>
+
+    <p>The mate brought the church service, and then whilst the men
+    stood with bowed heads, and the women knelt, the clergyman,
+    with strong, unfaltering voice read the second of the prayers
+    "To be used in Storms at Sea." He finished, and then sitting
+    down again, placed one hand over his eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+    <i>The living, the living shall praise Thee</i>
+
+    ."</p>
+
+    <p>It was the old mate who spoke. He alone of the men had knelt
+    beside the women, and when he rose his face bore such an
+    expression of calmness and content, that Otway, who five
+    minutes before had been silently cursing him for his "damned
+    idiotcy," looked at him with a sudden mingled respect and
+    wonder.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 201 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page196" name="page196">[pg 196]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Stepping across to the clergyman, Bruce respectfully placed his
+    hand on his shoulder, and as he spoke his clear blue eyes
+    smiled at the still kneeling women.</p>
+
+    <p>"Cheer up, sir. God will protect ye and your gude wife, and
+    us all. You, his meenister, have made supplication to Him, and
+    He has heard. Dinna weep, ladies. We are in the care of One who
+    holds the sea in the hollow of His hand."</p>
+
+    <p>Then he followed the captain and the others on deck, Otway
+    alone remaining to assist the steward.</p>
+
+    <p>"For God's sake give me some brandy," said Lacy to him, in a
+    low voice.</p>
+
+    <p>Otway looked at him in astonishment. Was the man a coward
+    after all?</p>
+
+    <p>He brought the brandy, and with ill-disguised contempt
+    placed it before him without a word. Lacy looked up at him, and
+    his face flushed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I'm not funking&#8212;not a d&#8212;&#8212;d bit, I can
+    assure you."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway at once poured out a nip of brandy for himself, and
+    clinked his glass against that of the clergyman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Pon my soul, I couldn't make it out, and I apologise. But a
+    man's nerves go all at once sometimes&#8212;can't help himself,
+    you know. Mine did once when I was in the nigger-catching
+    business in the Solomon Islands. Natives opened fire on us when
+    our boats were aground in a creek, and some of our men got hit.
+    I wasn't a bit scared of a smack from a bullet, but when I got
+    a scratch on my hand from an arrow, I dropped in a blue funk,
+    and acted like a cur.
+<!-- Page 202 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page197" name="page197">[pg 197]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Knew it was poisoned, felt sure I'd die of lockjaw, and began
+    to weep internally. Then the mate called me a rotten young cur,
+    shook me up, and put my Snider into my hand. But I shall always
+    feel funky at the sight even of a child's twopenny bow and
+    arrow. Now I must go."</p>
+
+    <p>The clergyman nodded and smiled, and then rising from his
+    seat, he tapped at the door of his wife's state-room. She
+    opened it, and then Otway, who was helping the steward, heard
+    her sob hysterically.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Will, Will, why did you? How could you? I love you,
+    Will dear, I love you, and if death comes to us in another
+    hour, another minute, I shall die happily with your arms round
+    me. But, Will dear, there is a God, I'm sure there
+    <i>is</i>
+
+    a God.... I feel it in my heart, I feel it. And now that death
+    is so near to us&#8212;&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>Lacy put his arms around her, and lifted her trembling
+    figure upon his knees.</p>
+
+    <p>"There, rest yourself, my pet."</p>
+
+    <p>"Rest! Rest?" she said brokenly, as Lacy drew her to him.
+    "How can I rest when I think of how I have sinned, and how I
+    shall die! Will dear, when I heard you reading that
+    prayer&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>"I
+    <i>had</i>
+
+    to do it, Nell."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will, dear Will.... Perhaps God may forgive us both.... But
+    as I sat here in my dark cabin, and listened to you reading
+    that prayer, my husband's face came before me&#8212;the face
+    that I thought was so dull and stupid. And his eyes seemed so
+    soft and kind&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 203 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page198" name="page198">[pg 198]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    For God's sake, my dear little woman, don't think of what is
+    past. We have made the plunge together&#8212;&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>The woman uttered one last sobbing sigh. "I am not afraid to
+    die, Will. I am not afraid, but when I heard you begin to read
+    that prayer, my courage forsook me. I wanted to scream&#8212;to
+    rush out and stop you, for it seemed to me as if you were doing
+    it in sheer mockery."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can only say again, Nell, that I could not help myself;
+    made me feel pretty sick, I assure you."</p>
+
+    <p>Their voices ceased, and presently Lacy stepped out into the
+    main cabin, and then went on deck again.</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson met him with a cheerful face. "Come on, Mr. Lacy.
+    I've some good news for you&#8212;we are making less water! The
+    leak must be taking up in some way." Then holding on to the
+    rail with one hand, he shouted to the men at the pumps.</p>
+
+    <p>"Shake her up, boys! shake her up. Here's Mr. Lacy come to
+    lend a hand, and the supercargo and steward will be with you in
+    a minute. Now I'm going below for a minute to tell the ladies,
+    and mix you a bucket of grog. Shake her up, you, Tom Tarbucket,
+    my bully boy with a glass eye! Shake her up, and when she sucks
+    dry, I'll stand a sovereign all round."</p>
+
+    <p>The willing crew answered him with a cheer, and Tom
+    Tarbucket, a square-built, merry faced native of Savage Island,
+    who was stripped to the waist, shouted out, amid the laughter
+    of his shipmates&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 204 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page199" name="page199">[pg 199]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Ay, ay, capt'in, we soon make pump suck dry if two Miss de Boos
+    girl come."</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson laughed in response, and then picking up a wooden
+    bucket from under the fife rail, clattered down the companion
+    way.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where are you, Otway? Up you get on deck, and you too,
+    steward. The leak is taken up and 'everything is lovely and the
+    goose hangs high.' Up you go to the pumps, and make 'em suck.
+    I'll bring up some grog presently."</p>
+
+    <p>Then as Otway and the steward sprang up on deck, the captain
+    stamped along the cabin in his sodden sea boots, banging at
+    each door.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come out, Sarah, come out Sukie, my little
+    chickabiddies&#8212;there's to be no boat trip for you after
+    all. Miss Weidermann, I've good news, good news! Mrs. Lacy,
+    cheer up, dear lady. The leak has taken up, and you can go on
+    deck and see your husband working at the pumps like a number
+    one chop Trojan. Ha! Father Roget, give me your hand. You're a
+    white man, sir, and ought to be a bishop."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke to the now awakened old priest, the two De Boos
+    girls, Mrs. Lacy and Miss Weidermann, all came out of their
+    cabins, and Robertson shook hands with them, and lifting Sukie
+    de Boos up between his two rough hands as if she were a little
+    girl, he kissed her, and then made a grab at Sarah, who dodged
+    behind Mrs. Lacy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, father, don't you attempt to come on deck. Mrs. Lacy,
+    just you keep him here. Sukie, my chick, you and Sarah get a
+    couple of bottles of brandy,
+<!-- Page 205 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page200" name="page200">[pg 200]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    make this bucket full of half-and-half, and bring it on deck to
+    the men."</p>
+
+    <p>As he noisily stamped out of the cabin again, the old priest
+    turned to the ladies, and raised his hand&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"A brave, brave man&#8212;a very good English sailor. And
+    now let us thank God for His mercies to us."</p>
+
+    <p>The four ladies, with Mina, knelt, and then the good old man
+    prayed fervently for a few minutes. Then Sukie de Boos and her
+    sister flung their arms around Mrs. Lacy, and kissed her, and
+    even Miss Weidermann, now thoroughly unstrung, began to cry
+    hysterically. She had at first detested Mrs. Lacy as being
+    altogether too scandalously young and pretty for a clergyman's
+    wife. Now she was ready to take her to her bosom (that is, to
+    her metaphorical bosom, as she had no other), for she believed
+    that Mr. Lacy's prayer had saved them all, he being a
+    Protestant clergyman, and therefore better qualified to avert
+    imminent death than a priest of Rome.</p>
+
+    <p>Sukie and Sally de Boos mixed the grog, took it on deck, and
+    served it out to the men at the pumps.</p>
+
+    <p>The carpenter sounded the well, and as he drew up the iron
+    rod, the second mate gave a shout.</p>
+
+    <p>"Only seven inches, captain."</p>
+
+    <p>"Right, my boy. Take a good spell now, Mr. Allen. Mr. Bruce,
+    we can give her a bit more lower canvas now. She'll stand it.
+    Mr. Lacy, and you Captain Burr, come aft and get into some dry
+    togs. The glass is rising steadily, and in a few hours we'll
+    feel a bit more comfy."</p>
+
+    <p>He prophesied truly, for the violence of the gale
+<!-- Page 206 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page201" name="page201">[pg 201]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    decreased rapidly, and when at the end of an hour the pumps
+    sucked, the crew gave a cheer, and tired out as they were,
+    eagerly sprang aloft to repair damages and then spread more
+    sail, Sarah and Susan de Boos hauling and pulling at the
+    running gear from the deck below. They were both girls of
+    splendid physique, and, in a way, sailors, and had Robertson
+    allowed them to do so, would have gone aloft and handled the
+    canvas with the men.</p>
+
+    <p>By four o'clock in the afternoon the little barque, with her
+    wave-swept, bulwarkless decks, now drying under a bright sun,
+    was running before a warm, good-hearted breeze, and the pumps
+    were only attended to twice in every watch.</p>
+
+    <p>Mrs. Lacy, Miss Weidermann, the De Boos girls, and the
+    French priest were seated on the poop deck, on rugs and
+    blankets spread out for them by Otway and the steward. Lacy,
+    with Captain Burr, was pacing to and fro smoking his pipe, and
+    laughing heartily at Sukie de Boos's attempts to make his wife
+    smoke a cigarette. Presently old Bruce came along with the
+    second mate and some men to set a new gaff-topsail, and the
+    ladies rose to go below, so as to be out of the way.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nae, nae, leddies, dinna go below," said the old mate
+    cheerfully, "ye'll no' hinder us. And the sight o' sae many
+    sweet, bonny faces will mak' us work a' the better. And how are
+    ye now, Mrs. Lacy? Ah, the pink roses are in your cheeks once
+    mair." And then he stepped quickly up to the young clergyman
+    and took his hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 207 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page202" name="page202">[pg 202]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Mr. Lacy, ye must pardon me, but I'm an auld man, and must hae
+    my way. Ye're a gude, brave man;" then he added in a low voice,
+    "and ye called upon Him, and He heard us."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you, Mr. Bruce," Lacy answered nervously, as he saw
+    his wife's eyes droop, and a vivid blush dye her fair cheeks.
+    Then he plucked the American captain by the sleeve and went
+    below, and Sukie de Boos laughed loudly when in another minute
+    they heard the pop of a bottle of soda water. She ran to the
+    skylight and bent down.</p>
+
+    <p>"You're a pair of exceedingly rude men. You might think of
+    Father Roget&#8212;even if you don't think of us poor women.
+    Mr. Otway, come here, you horrid, dirty-faced, ragged creature!
+    Go below and get a glass of port wine for Father Roget, a
+    bottle of champagne for Mrs. Lacy and my sister and myself, and
+    a cup of tea for Mrs. Weidermann, and bring some biscuits,
+    too."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come and help me, then," said the supercargo, who was
+    indeed dirty-faced and ragged.</p>
+
+    <p>Sukie danced towards the companion way with him. Half-way
+    down he put his arms round her and kissed her vigorously. She
+    returned his kisses with interest, and laughingly smacked his
+    cheek.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me go, Charlie Otway, you horrid, bold fellow. Now,
+    one, two, three, or I'll call out and invoke the protection of
+    the clergy, above and below&#8212;those on board this ship I
+    mean, not those who are in heaven or elsewhere."</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 208 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page203" name="page203">[pg 203]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Ten days later the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    sailed into Apia Harbour and dropped anchor inside Matautu
+    Point just as the evening mists were closing their fleecy
+    mantle around the verdant slopes of Vailima Mountain.</p>
+
+    <p>The two half-caste girls, with their maid and Mr. and Mrs.
+    Lacy, came to bid Otway and the captain a brief farewell,
+    before they went ashore in the pilot boat to D'Acosta's hotel
+    in Matafele.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now remember, Otway, and you, Captain Robertson, and you,
+    Captain Burr, you are all to dine with us at the hotel the day
+    after to-morrow. And perhaps you, too, Father Roget will
+    reconsider your decision and come too." It was Lacy who
+    spoke.</p>
+
+    <p>The gentle-voiced old Frenchman shook his head and
+    smiled&#8212;"Ah no, it was impossible," he said. The bishop
+    would not like him to so soon leave the Mission. But the bishop
+    and his brothers at the Mission would look forward to have the
+    good captain, and Mr. Burr, and Mr. Otway, and the ladies to
+    accept his hospitality.</p>
+
+    <p>Mrs. Lacy's soft little gloved hand was in Otway's.</p>
+
+    <p>"I thank you, Mr. Otway, very, very sincerely for your many
+    kindnesses to me. You have indeed been most generous to us
+    both. It was cruel of us to take your cabin and compel you to
+    sleep in the trade-room. But I shall never forget how kind you
+    have been."</p>
+
+    <p>All that was good in Otway came into his vicious heart and
+    voiced softly through his lips.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 209 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page204" name="page204">[pg 204]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    I am only too glad, Mrs. Lacy.... I am indeed. I didn't like
+    giving up my cabin to strangers at first, and was a bit of a
+    beast when Mr. Harry told me we were taking two extra
+    passengers. But I am glad now."</p>
+
+    <p>He turned away, and went below with burning cheeks. Before
+    the storm he had tried his best, late on several nights, to
+    make Lacy drunk, and to keep him drunk; but Lacy could stand as
+    much or more grog than he could himself; and when he heard that
+    passionate, sobbing appeal, "Oh, Will, Will, how could you?"
+    his better nature was stirred, and his fierce sensual desire
+    for her changed into a sentimental affection and respect. He
+    knew her secret, and now, instead of wishing to take advantage
+    of it, felt he was too much of a man to abuse his
+    knowledge.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Supper was over, and as the skipper, Burr, and Otway paced
+    the quarter-deck before going ashore to play a game or two of
+    billiards and meet some friends, a boat came alongside, and a
+    man stepped on deck and inquired for the captain. As he
+    followed Robertson down the companion, Otway saw that he was a
+    well-dressed, rather gentlemanly-looking young man of about
+    five and twenty.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who's that joker, I wonder?" he said to Burr; "not any one
+    living in Samoa, unless he's a new-comer. Hope he won't stay
+    long&#8212;it's eight o'clock now."</p>
+
+    <p>Ten minutes later the steward came to him.</p>
+
+    <p>"The captain wishes to see you, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway entered the cabin. Robertson, with frowning
+<!-- Page 210 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page205" name="page205">[pg 205]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    face, motioned him to a seat. The strange gentleman sat near
+    the captain smoking a cigar, and with some papers in his
+    hands.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Otway, I have sent for you. This gentleman has a
+    warrant for the arrest of Mr. Lacy, issued by the New Zealand
+    Government and initialled by the British Consul here."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway rose to the occasion. He nodded to the stranger and
+    sat down quietly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir?" he asked inquiringly of Robertson.</p>
+
+    <p>"You will please tell my supercargo your business, mister,"
+    said the captain gruffly to the stranger; "he can tell you all
+    you wish to know&#8212;that is, if he cares to do so. I don't
+    see that your warrant holds any force here in Samoa. You can't
+    execute it. There's no government here, no police, no anything,
+    and the British Consul can't act on a warrant issued from New
+    Zealand. It is of no more use in Samoa than it would be at Cape
+    Horn."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, sir, make haste," said Otway with a mingled and
+    studied insolence and politeness. He already began to detest
+    the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am a detective of the police force of New Zealand, and I
+    have come from Auckland to arrest William Barton, alias the
+    Rev. Wilfrid Lacy, on a charge of stealing twenty thousand,
+    five hundred pounds from the National Bank of Christchurch, of
+    which he was manager. I believe that twenty thousand pounds of
+    the money he has stolen is on board this vessel at this moment,
+    and I now demand access to his cabin."</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 211 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page206" name="page206">[pg 206]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Do you? How are you going to enforce your demand, my cocksure
+    friend?"</p>
+
+    <p>Otway rose, and placing his two hands on the table, looked
+    insultingly at the detective. "What rot you are talking,
+    man!"</p>
+
+    <p>The detective drew back, alarmed and startled.</p>
+
+    <p>"The British Consul has endorsed my warrant to arrest this
+    man," he said, "and it will go hard with any one who attempts
+    to interfere with me in the performance of my duty."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway shot a quick, triumphant glance at the captain.</p>
+
+    <p>"The Consul is, and always was, a silly old ass. You have
+    come on a fool's errand; and are going on the wrong tack by
+    making threats. That idiotic warrant of yours is of no more use
+    to you than a sheet of fly paper&#8212;Samoa is outside British
+    jurisdiction. The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific
+    would not have endorsed such a fool of a document, and I'll
+    report the matter to him.... Now, sit down and tell me what you
+
+    <i>do</i>
+
+    want, and I'll try and help you all I can. But don't try to
+    bluff us&#8212;it's only wasting your time. Steward, bring us
+    something to drink."</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as the steward brought them "something to drink"
+    Otway became deeply sympathetic with the detective, and
+    Robertson, who knew his supercargo well, smiled inwardly at the
+    manner he adopted.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, just tell us, Mr.&#8212;O'Donovan, I think you said is
+    your name&#8212;what is all the trouble? I need
+<!-- Page 212 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page207" name="page207">[pg 207]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    hardly tell you that whilst both the captain and myself felt
+    annoyed at your dictatorial manner, we are both sensible men,
+    and will do all in our power to assist you. Our firm's
+    reputation has to be studied&#8212;has it not, captain? We
+    don't want it to be insinuated that we helped an embezzler to
+    escape, do we?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not," replied Robertson, puffing slowly at his
+    cigar, watching Otway keenly through his half-closed eyelids,
+    and wondering what that astute young gentleman was driving at.
+    "I guess that you, Mr. Otway, will do all that is right and
+    cor-rect."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you, sir," replied Otway humbly, and with great
+    seriousness, "I know my duty to my employers, and I know that
+    this gentleman may be led into very serious trouble through the
+    dense stupidity of the British Consul here."</p>
+
+    <p>He turned to Mr. O'Donovan&#8212;"Are you aware, Mr.
+    O'Donikin&#8212;I beg your pardon, O'Donovan&#8212;that the
+    British Consul here is not, officially, the British Consul. He
+    is merely a commercial agent, like the United States Consul.
+    Neither are accredited by their Governments to act officially
+    on behalf of their respective countries, and even if they were,
+    there is no extradition treaty with the Samoan Islands, which
+    is a country without a recognised government. Of course, Mr.
+    O'Donovan, you are acting in good faith; but you have no more
+    legal right nor the power to arrest a man in Samoa, than you
+    have to arrest one in Manchuria or Patagonia. Of course, old
+    Johns (the British Consul) doesn't know this, or
+<!-- Page 213 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page208" name="page208">[pg 208]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    he would not have made such a fool of himself by endorsing a
+    warrant from an irresponsible judge of a New Zealand court. But
+    as I told you, I shall aid you in every possible way."</p>
+
+    <p>O'Donovan was no fool. He knew that all that Otway had said
+    was absolutely correct, but he braced himself up.</p>
+
+    <p>"I daresay what you say may be right, Mr. Supercargo. But
+    I've come from New Zealand to get this joker, and by blazes I
+    mean to get him, and take him back with me to New Zealand. And
+    I mean to have those twenty thousand sovereigns to take back as
+    well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, why the devil don't you go and get your man?
+    He's at Joe D'Acosta's hotel with his wife."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't want to be bothered with him just yet. I have no
+    place to put him into. The Californian mail boat from San
+    Francisco is not due here for another ten days. But I know that
+    he hasn't taken his stolen money ashore yet, and you had better
+    hand it over to me at once. I can get
+    <i>him</i>
+
+    at any time."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway leant back in his chair and laughed.</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't doubt that, Mr. O'Donovan. If you have enough money
+    to do it, you can do as you say&#8212;get this man at any time.
+    But you want to have some guns behind you to enforce it; and
+    then his capture won't affect our custody of the money. If the
+    Consul instigates you to make an attack on the ship, you will
+    do so at your peril, for we shall resist any piratical
+    attempt."</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 214 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page209" name="page209">[pg 209]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    O'Donovan's face fell. "You said you would assist me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"So I will," replied Otway, lying genially, "But you must
+    point out a way. The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific,
+    in Fiji, is the only man who could give you power to arrest the
+    man and convey him to New Zealand, and the moment you show me
+    the High or the Deputy High Commissioner's order to hand over
+    the money, and Lacy's other effects, I'll do so."</p>
+
+    <p>The detective made his last stroke.</p>
+
+    <p>"I can take the law into my own hands and chance the
+    consequences. The Consul will supply me with a
+    force&#8212;"</p>
+
+    <p>Robertson smiled grimly, and pointed to the rack of Snider
+    rifles around the mizen-mast at the head of the table.</p>
+
+    <p>"You and your force will have a bad time of it then, and be
+    shot down before you can put foot on my deck. I've never seen a
+    shark eat a policeman, but there seems a chance of it now."</p>
+
+    <p>O'Donovan laughed uneasily, then he changed his tactics.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now look here, gentlemen," he said confidentially, leaning
+    across the table, "I can see I'm in a bit of a hole, but I'm a
+    business man, and you are business men, and I think we
+    understand one another, eh? As you say, my warrant doesn't hold
+    good here in Samoa. But the Consul will back me up, and if I
+    can take this chap back to New Zealand it means a big thing for
+    me. Now, what's your figure?"</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 215 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page210" name="page210">[pg 210]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Two hundred each for the skipper and myself," answered Otway
+    promptly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Done. You shall have it."</p>
+
+    <p>"When?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Give me till to-morrow afternoon. I've only a hundred and
+    fifty pounds with me, and I'll have to raise the rest."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, it's a deal. But mind, you'll have to take care
+    to be here before the parson. He's coming off at eleven
+    o'clock."</p>
+
+    <p>"Trust me for that, gentlemen."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm sorry for his wife," said Otway meditatively.</p>
+
+    <p>O'Donovan grinned. "Ah, I haven't told you the
+    yarn&#8212;she's not his wife! She bolted from her husband, who
+    is a big swell in Auckland, a Mr.&#8212;&#8212;."</p>
+
+    <p>"How did you get on their tracks?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sydney police found out that two people answering their
+    description had sailed for the Islands in the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    , and cabled over to us. We thought they had lit out for
+    America. I only got here the day before yesterday in the
+    <i>Ryno</i>
+
+    , from Auckland."</p>
+
+    <p>Otway paid him some very florid compliments on his
+    smartness, and then after another drink or two, the detective
+    went on shore, highly pleased.</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as he was gone, Otway turned to Robertson.</p>
+
+    <p>"You won't stand in my way, Robertson, will you?" he
+    asked&#8212;"I want to see the poor devils get away."</p>
+
+    <p>"You take all the responsibility, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will," and then he rapidly told the skipper his
+<!-- Page 216 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page211" name="page211">[pg 211]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    plan, and set to work by at once asking the second mate to get
+    ready the boat and then come back to the cabin.</p>
+
+    <p>"All ready," said Allen, five minutes later.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then come with the steward and help me with this gear."</p>
+
+    <p>He unlocked the door of Lacy's state-room, lit the swinging
+    candle, and quickly passed out Mr. and Mrs. Lacy's remaining
+    luggage to the second mate and steward. Three small leather
+    trunks, marked "Books with Care," were especially heavy, and he
+    guessed their contents.</p>
+
+    <p>"Stow them safely in the boat, Allen. Don't make more noise
+    than you can help. I'll be with you in a minute."</p>
+
+    <p>Going into his own cabin, he took a large handbag, threw
+    into it his revolver and two boxes of cartridges, then carried
+    it into the trade-room, and added half a dozen tins of the
+    brand of tobacco which he knew Lacy liked, and then filled the
+    remaining space with pint bottles of champagne. Then he whipped
+    up a sheet or two of letter paper and an envelope from the
+    cabin-table, thrust them into his coat pocket, and, bag in
+    hand, stepped quickly on deck. The old mate was in his cabin,
+    and had not heard anything.</p>
+
+    <p>"Give it to her, boys," he said to the crew, taking the
+    steer-oar in his hand, and heading the boat towards a small
+    fore-and-aft schooner lying half a mile away in the Matafele
+    horn of the reef encircling Apia Harbour.</p>
+
+    <p>The four native seamen bent to their oars in silence, and
+    sped swiftly through the darkness over the calm
+<!-- Page 217 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page212" name="page212">[pg 212]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    waters of the harbour. The schooner showed no riding light on
+    her forestay, but, on the after deck under the awning, a lamp
+    was burning, and three men&#8212;the captain, mate, and
+    boatswain&#8212;were playing cards on the skylight.</p>
+
+    <p>Otway jumped on deck, just as the men rose to meet him.</p>
+
+    <p>"Great Ascensial Jehosophat! Why, it's you, Mr. Otway?"
+    cried the captain, a little clean-shaven man, as he shook hands
+    with the supercargo. "Well, now, I was just wondering whether
+    I'd go ashore and try and drop across you. Say, tell me now,
+    hev you any good tinned beef and a case of Winchesters you can
+    sell me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, both," replied Otway, shaking hands with the three in
+    turn&#8212;they were all old acquaintances, especially Le Brun,
+    the mate. "But come below with me, Revels; I've important
+    business, and it has to be done right away&#8212;this very
+    night."</p>
+
+    <p>Revels led the way below into the schooner's cabin, and at
+    once produced a bottle of Bourbon and a couple of glasses.</p>
+
+    <p>"No time to drink, Revels.... All right, just a little,
+    then. Now, tell me, do you want to make&#8212;and make it
+    easy&#8212;five hundred pounds?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Guess I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you ready for sea?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I was thinking of sailing on a cruise among the Tokelau
+    Islands in a day or two."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then don't think of it. If you put to sea to-night for a
+    longer voyage, I can guarantee you that you will
+<!-- Page 218 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page213" name="page213">[pg 213]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    get five hundred pounds&#8212;if you will take two passengers
+    on board, and put to sea as soon as they come alongside."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where do they want to go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That I can't say. Manila or Hongkong, most likely. It'll
+    pay you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is the money safe?"</p>
+
+    <p>Otway struck his hand on the table. "Safe as rain, Revels.
+    They have plenty. I have it here alongside, and if you don't
+    get five hundred sovereigns paid you when you have dropped
+    Samoa astern, you can come back with your passengers, and I'll
+    give you fifty pounds myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Friends of yours?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's enough fur me, Otway. Now, just tell me what to
+    do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell your mate to get your boat ready to go ashore, while I
+    write a note."</p>
+
+    <p>He took a sheet of paper, and hurriedly wrote in pencil:</p>
+
+    <p class="blkquot">"DEAR LACY,&#8212;Don't hesitate to follow
+    my instructions. There's a man here from New Zealand. Tried to
+    get access to your cabin; bluffed him. You and your wife must
+    follow bearer of this note to his boat, which will bring you to
+    a schooner. The captain's name is Revels. He expects you, and
+    you can trust him. Have pledged him my word that you will give
+    him &#163;500 to land you at Manila or thereabouts; also that
+    you will hand it to him as soon as the schooner is clear of the
+    land.
+    <i>All</i>
+
+    your luggage is on board the schooner, awaiting you. Allen
+    helped me. You might send him a present by Revels. Goodbye, and
+    all good luck. One last word&#8212;
+    <i>be quick, be quick</i>
+
+    !"</p>
+
+    <p>"Boat is ready," said Revels.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 219 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page214" name="page214">[pg 214]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Right," and Otway closed the letter and handed it to the mate.
+    "Here you are, Le Brun. Now, listen. Pull in to the mouth of
+    the creek at the French Mission, just beside the bridge. Leave
+    your boat there and then take this letter to D'Acosta's Hotel
+    and ask to see Mr. Lacy. If he and his wife have gone out for a
+    walk, you must follow them and give him the letter; but I feel
+    pretty sure you'll find them on the verandah. Bring them off on
+    board as quickly and as quietly as possible. No one will take
+    any notice of the boat in the creek. Oh! and tell Mr. Lacy to
+    be dead sure not to bring anything in the way of even a small
+    bag with him&#8212;Joe D'Acosta might wonder. I'll settle the
+    hotel bill later on. Are you clear?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Clear as mud," replied Le Brun, a big, black-whiskered
+    Guernsey man.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then goodbye."</p>
+
+    <p>The schooner's boat, manned by two hands only, pushed off,
+    and then Revels turned to Otway.</p>
+
+    <p>"Shall I heave short so as to be ready?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Heave short, be d&#8212;&#8212;d!" replied Otway testily.
+    "No, just lie nice and quiet, and as soon as you have your
+    passengers on board slip your cable. I'll see that your anchor
+    is fished up for you. And even if you lost your anchor and a
+    few fathoms of chain it doesn't matter against five hundred
+    sovereigns. The people on shore would be sure to hear the sound
+    of the windlass pawls, and there's a man here from
+    Auckland&#8212;a detective&#8212;who might make a bold stroke,
+    get a dozen native bullies and collar
+<!-- Page 220 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page215" name="page215">[pg 215]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    you. So slip, my boy, slip. There's a fine healthy breeze which
+    will take you clear of the reef in ten minutes."</p>
+
+    <p>The two men shook hands, and Otway stepped into his boat,
+    which he steered in towards the principal jetty.</p>
+
+    <p>Jumping out he walked along the roadway which led from
+    Matafele to Apia. As he passed the British Consul's house he
+    saw Mr. O'Donovan standing on the verandah talking to the
+    Consul. He waved his hand to them, and cheerfully invited the
+    detective to come along to "Johnnie Hall's" and play a game of
+    billiards.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. O'Donovan, little thinking that Otway had a purpose in
+    view, took the bait. The Consul knew Otway, and, in a measure,
+    dreaded him, for the supercargo's knowledge of certain
+    transactions in connection with the sale of arms to natives, in
+    which he (the Consul) had taken a leading and lucrative part.
+    So when he saw the supercargo of the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    beckoning to O'Donovan he smiled genially at him, and hurriedly
+    told the detective to go.</p>
+
+    <p>"He's a most astute and clever young scoundrel, Mr.
+    O'Donovan, and in a way we are at his mercy. But you shall have
+    the four hundred pounds in the morning&#8212;not later than
+    noon. This man Barton must be brought to justice at any
+    cost."</p>
+
+    <p>"Just so, sir; and you will get a hundred out of the
+    business, any way," replied O'Donovan, who had gauged the
+    Consul's morality pretty fairly.</p>
+
+    <p>As Otway and the detective walked towards the
+<!-- Page 221 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page216" name="page216">[pg 216]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    hotel known as "Johnny Hall's" the former said
+    lazily&#8212;</p>
+
+    <p>"Look here, Mr. O'Donovan. Are the skipper and myself to get
+    those four hundred sovs to-morrow or not? To tell you the exact
+    truth, I have a fair amount of doubt about your promise. Where
+    are you going to get the money?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's all right, Mr. Otway. You're a business man. And you
+    and the skipper will have your two hundred each before one
+    o'clock to-morrow. The Consul is doing the necessary."</p>
+
+    <p>"Right, my boy," said Otway effusively. "Now we'll play a
+    game or two at Johnny's and have some fun with the girls."</p>
+
+    <p>By eleven o'clock Mr. O'Donovan was comfortably half drunk,
+    and Otway led him out on to the verandah to look at the
+    harbour, shimmering under the starlight. They sat down on two
+    cane lounges, and the supercargo's keen eye saw that Revel's
+    schooner had gone. He breathed freely, and then brought Mr.
+    O'Donovan a large whisky and soda.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>In the morning Mr. O'Donovan and Mr. William Johns, the
+    British Consul, were in a state of frenzy on discovering that
+    Mr. and Mrs. Lacy had escaped during the night in the schooner
+    <i>Solafanua</i>
+
+    . The Consul knew that Otway was at the bottom of the matter,
+    but dared not say so, but O'Donovan, who had more pluck and
+    nothing to lose, lost his temper and came on board the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    just as she was being hauled up on the beach to get at the
+    leak.</p>
+
+    <p>"
+<!-- Page 222 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page217" name="page217">[pg 217]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    You're a dirty sweep," he said to Otway.</p>
+
+    <p>The supercargo hit him between the eyes, and sent him down.
+    Allen picked him up, dumped him into the boat alongside, and
+    sent him ashore.</p>
+
+    <p>When the
+    <i>Tucopia</i>
+
+    lay high and dry on Apia beach Otway and old Bruce walked round
+    under her counter and looked for the leak. As the skipper had
+    surmised, a butt-end had started, but the gaping orifice was
+    now choked and filled with a large piece of seaweed.</p>
+
+    <p>"The prayer of one of God's ain ministers has saved us,"
+    said the Scotch mate, pointing upward.</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt," replied Otway, who knew that the good old man
+    had heard nothing of what had happened.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 223 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page218" name="page218">[pg 218]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='The_Man_in_the_Buffalo_Hide'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>The Man in the Buffalo Hide</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>Twelve years ago in a North Queensland town I was told the
+    story of "The Man in the Buffalo Hide" by Ned D&#8212;&#8212;.
+    He (D&#8212;&#8212;) was then a prosperous citizen, having made
+    a small fortune by "striking it rich" on the Gilbert and
+    Etheridge Rivers goldfields. Returning from the arid wastes of
+    the Queensland back country to Sydney, he tired of leading an
+    inactive life, and hearing that gold had been discovered on one
+    of the Solomon Islands, he took passage thither in the Sydney
+    whaling barque
+    <i>Costa Rica</i>
+
+    packet, and though he returned to Australia without discovering
+    gold in the islands, he had kept one of the most interesting
+    logs of a whaling cruise it has ever been my fortune to read.
+    The master of the whaleship was Captain J.Y. Carpenter, a man
+    who is well known and highly respected, not only in Sydney
+    (where he now resides), but throughout the East Indies and
+    China, where he had lived for over thirty years. And it was
+    from Captain Carpenter who was one of the actors in this
+    twice-told tragedy, that D&#8212;&#8212;heard this story of
+    Chinese vengeance. He (D&#8212;&#8212;) related it to me in
+    '88, and I wish I
+<!-- Page 224 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page219" name="page219">[pg 219]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    could write the tale as well and vividly as he told it.
+    However, I wrote it out for him then and there. Much to our
+    disgust the editor of the little journal to whom we sent the
+    MS., considered it a fairy tale, and cut it down to some two or
+    three hundred words. I mention these apparently unnecessary
+    details merely that the reader may not think that the tale is
+    fiction, for two years or so after, Captain Carpenter
+    corroborated my friend's story.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>It was after the Taeping rebellion had been stamped out in
+    blood and fire by Gordon and his "Ever Victorious Army," and
+    the Viceroy (Li Hung Chang) had taken up his quarters in
+    Canton, and was secretly torturing and beheading those
+    prisoners whom he had sworn to the English Government to
+    spare.</p>
+
+    <p>Carpenter was in command of a Chinese Government despatch
+    vessel&#8212;a side-wheeler&#8212;which was immediately under
+    the Viceroy's orders. She was but lightly armed, but was very
+    fast, as fast went in those days. His ship had been lying in
+    the filthy river for about a week, when, one afternoon, a
+    mandarin came off with a written order for him to get ready to
+    proceed to sea at daylight on the following morning. Previous
+    experience of his estimable and astute Chinese employers warned
+    him not to ask the fat-faced, almond-eyed mandarin any
+    questions as to the steamer's destination, or the duration of
+    the voyage. He simply said that he would be ready at the
+    appointed time.</p>
+
+    <p>At daylight another mandarin, named Kwang&#8212;
+<!-- Page 225 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page220" name="page220">[pg 220]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    one of much higher rank than his visitor of the previous
+    day&#8212;came on board. He was attended by thirty of the most
+    ruffianly-looking scoundrels&#8212;even for Chinamen&#8212;that
+    the captain had ever seen. They were all well armed, and came
+    off in a large, well-appointed boat, which, the mandarin
+    intimated with a polite smile, was to be towed, if she was too
+    heavy to be hoisted aboard. A couple of hands were put in her,
+    and she was veered astern. Then the anchor was lifted, and the
+    steamer started on her eighty miles trip down the river to the
+    sea, the mandarin informing the captain that he would name the
+    ship's destination as soon as they were clear of the land.</p>
+
+    <p>Most of Carpenter's officers were Europeans&#8212;Englishmen
+    or Americans&#8212;and one or two of them who spoke Chinese,
+    attempted to enter into conversation with the thirty braves,
+    and endeavour to learn the object of the steamer's mission.
+    Their inquiries were met either with a mocking jest or
+    downright insult, and presently the mandarin, who hitherto had
+    preserved a smiling and affable demeanour as he sat on the
+    quarter-deck, turned to the captain with a sullen and ferocious
+    aspect, and bade him remind his officers that they had no
+    business to question the servants of the "high and excellent
+    Viceroy."</p>
+
+    <p>But though neither Carpenter nor any of his officers could
+    learn aught about this sudden mission, one of their servants, a
+    Chinese who was deeply attached to his master, whispered
+    tremblingly to him that the mandarin and the thirty braves were
+    in quest of one of the Viceroy's most hated enemies&#8212;a
+    noted leader
+<!-- Page 226 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page221" name="page221">[pg 221]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of the Taepings who had escaped the bloodied hands of Li Hung
+    Chang, and whose retreat had been betrayed to the cruel,
+    merciless Li the previous day.</p>
+
+    <p>Once clear of the land, the mandarin, with a polite smile
+    and many compliments to Carpenter on the skilful and
+    expeditious manner in which he had navigated the steamer down
+    the river, requested him to proceed to a certain point on the
+    western side of the island of Formosa.</p>
+
+    <p>"When you are within twenty miles of the land, captain," he
+    said suavely, "you will make the steamer stop, and my men and I
+    will leave you in the boat. You must await our return, which
+    may be on the following day, or the day after, or perhaps
+    longer still. But whether I am absent one, or two, or six days,
+    you must keep your ship in the position I indicate as nearly as
+    possible. You must avoid observation from the shore, you must
+    be watchful, diligent, and patient, and, when you see my boat
+    returning, you must make your engines work quickly, and come
+    towards us with all speed. High commendation and a great reward
+    from the serene nobleness of our great Viceroy&#8212;who has
+    already condescended to notice your honourable ability and
+    great integrity in your profession&#8212;awaits you." Then with
+    another smile and bow he went to his cabin.</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as the steamer reached the place indicated by the
+    mandarin the engines were stopped. The boat, which was towing
+    astern, was hauled alongside, and the thirty truculent
+    "braves," with a Chinese
+<!-- Page 227 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page222" name="page222">[pg 222]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    pilot and the ever-smiling mandarin, got into her and pushed
+    off for the shore. That they were all picked men, who could
+    handle an oar as well as a rifle, was very evident from the
+    manner in which they sent the big boat along towards the blue
+    outline of the distant shore.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>For two days Carpenter and his officers waited and watched,
+    the steamer lying and rolling about upon a long swell, and
+    under a hot and brazen sun. Then, about seven o'clock in the
+    morning, as the sea haze lifted, a look-out on the foreyard
+    hailed the deck and said the boat was in sight. The steamer's
+    head was at once put towards her under a full head of steam,
+    and in another hour the mandarin and his braves were
+    alongside.</p>
+
+    <p>The mandarin clambered up on deck, his always-smiling face
+    (which Carpenter and his officers had come to detest) now
+    darkly exultant.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have done well, sir," he said to the captain; "the
+    Viceroy himself, when my own miserable worthlessness abases
+    itself before him, shall know how truly and cleverly you and
+    your officers (who shall be honoured for countless ages in the
+    future) have obeyed the behests which I have had the
+    never-to-be-extinguished honour to convey from him to you.
+    There is a prisoner in the boat&#8212;a prisoner who is to be
+    tried before those high and merciful judges whose Heaven-sent
+    authority your valorous commander of the Ever Victorious Army
+    has upheld."</p>
+
+    <p>Carpenter, being a sailor man before all else,
+<!-- Page 228 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page223" name="page223">[pg 223]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    swallowed the mandarin's compliments for all they were worth,
+    and I can imagine him giving a grumpy nod to the smiling minion
+    of the Viceroy as he ordered "the prisoner" to be brought on
+    deck, and the boat to be veered astern for towing.</p>
+
+    <p>The official interposed oilily. There was no need, he said,
+    to tow the boat to Canton if she could not be hoisted on board,
+    and was likely to impede the steamer's progress. Some of his
+    braves could remain in her, and the insignia of the Viceroy
+    which they wore would ensure both their and the boat's
+    safety&#8212;no pirates would touch them.</p>
+
+    <p>The captain said that to tow such a heavy boat for such a
+    long distance would certainly delay the steamer's arrival in
+    Canton by at least six or eight hours. The mandarin smiled
+    sweetly, and said that as speed was everything the most
+    honourable navigator, whom he now had the privilege to address,
+    and who was so soon to be distinguished by his mightiness the
+    Viceroy, could at once let the boat which had conveyed his
+    worthless self into the sunshine of his (the captain's)
+    presence, go adrift.</p>
+
+    <p>At a sign from Kwang, six of his cutthroats clambered down
+    the side into the boat, which was at once cast oft; the steamer
+    was sent along under a full head of steam, and the captain was
+    about to ascend the bridge when the mandarin stayed him, and
+    requested that a meal should be at once prepared in the cabin
+    for the prisoner, who, he said, was somewhat exhausted, for his
+    capture was only effected after he had killed three and wounded
+    half a dozen of "the
+<!-- Page 229 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page224" name="page224">[pg 224]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    braves." So courageous a man, he added softly, whatever his
+    offence might be, must not be allowed to suffer the pangs of
+    hunger and thirst.</p>
+
+    <p>Carpenter gave the necessary order to the steward with a
+    sensation of pleasure, feeling that he had done the suave and
+    gentle-voiced Kwang an injustice in imagining him to be like
+    most Chinese officials&#8212;utterly indifferent and callous to
+    human suffering. Then he stepped along the deck towards the
+    bridge just as two of the braves lifted the prisoner to his
+    feet, which a third had freed from a thong of hide, bound so
+    tightly around them that it had literally cut into the flesh.
+    His hands were tied in the same manner, and round his neck was
+    an iron collar, with a chain about six feet in length which was
+    secured at the end to another band around the waist of one of
+    the "braves."</p>
+
+    <p>As the prisoner stood erect, Carpenter saw that he was a man
+    of herculean proportions and over six feet three or four inches
+    in height. His arms and naked chest were cut, bleeding and
+    bruised, and a bamboo gag was in his mouth; but what at once
+    attracted the captain's attention and sympathy was the man's
+    face.</p>
+
+    <p>So calm, steadfast, and serene were his clear, undaunted
+    eyes; so proud, lofty, and contemptuous and yet so dignified
+    his bearing, as he glanced at his guards when they bade him
+    walk, that Carpenter, drawing back a little, raised his hand in
+    salute.</p>
+
+    <p>In an instant the deep, dark eyes lit up, and the tortured,
+    distorted mouth would have smiled had it not been for the cruel
+    gag. But twice he bent his
+<!-- Page 230 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page225" name="page225">[pg 225]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    head, and his eyes did that which was denied to his lips.</p>
+
+    <p>Captain Carpenter was deeply moved. The man's heroic
+    fortitude, his noble bearing under such physical suffering, the
+    tender, woman-like resignation in the eyes which could yet
+    smile into his, affected him so strongly that he could not help
+    asking one of the "braves" the prisoner's name.</p>
+
+    <p>An insolent, threatening gesture was the only answer. But
+    the prisoner had heard, and bent his head in acknowledgment.
+    When he raised it again and saw that Carpenter had now taken
+    off his cap, tears trickled down his cheeks. In another moment
+    he was hurried along the deck into the cabin, and half a dozen
+    "braves" stood guard at the door to prevent intrusion, whilst
+    the gag was removed, and the victim of the Viceroy's vengeance
+    was urged to eat. Whether he did so or not was never known, for
+    half an hour afterwards he was removed to one of the
+    state-rooms, where he was closely guarded by Kwang's
+    cutthroats. When he was next seen by Carpenter and the officers
+    of the steamer the gag was again in his mouth, but the calm,
+    resolute eyes met theirs as it trying to tell them that the
+    heroic soul within the tortured body knew no fear, and felt and
+    appreciated their sympathy.</p>
+
+    <p>On the afternoon of the third day after leaving Formosa the
+    steamer ploughed her way up the muddy waters of the river, and
+    came to an anchor off the city at a place which was within half
+    a mile of the Viceroy's residence. The mandarin requested the
+<!-- Page 231 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page226" name="page226">[pg 226]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    captain to fire three guns, and hoist the Chinese flag at both
+    the fore and main peaks.</p>
+
+    <p>This signal was, so Kwang condescended to say, to inform His
+    Illustriousness the Ever-Merciful Viceroy that he, Kwang, his
+    crawling dependent, guided by Carpenter's high intelligence,
+    and supreme and honoured skill as a navigator, had achieved the
+    object which His Illustriousness desired.</p>
+
+    <p>The captain listened to all this "flam," bowed his
+    acknowledgments, and then suddenly asked the mandarin the
+    prisoner's name.</p>
+
+    <p>Again the fat, complacent face darkened, and almost scowled.
+    "No," he replied sullenly, he himself "was not permitted" to
+    know the prisoner's name. His crime? He did not know. When was
+    he to be tried? To-morrow. Then he rose and abruptly requested
+    the captain to ask no more questions. But, he added, with a
+    smile, he could promise him that he should at least see the
+    captive again.</p>
+
+    <p>In a few minutes a boat came off, and the prisoner, closely
+    guarded, and with his face covered with a piece of cloth, was
+    hurried ashore.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Four days had passed&#8212;days of heat so intense that even
+    the Chinese crew of the steamer lay about the decks under the
+    awning, stripped to their waists, and fanning themselves
+    languidly. During this time the captain and his officers, by
+    careful inquiries, ascertained that the unfortunate prisoner
+    was a brother of one of the Wangs, or seven "Heavenly Kings,"
+    who had led the Taeping forces, and that for a long time past
+<!-- Page 232 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page227" name="page227">[pg 227]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    the Viceroy had made most strenuous efforts to effect his
+    capture, being particularly exasperated with him, not only for
+    his courage in the field, and the influence he had wielded over
+    the unfortunate Taepings, who were wiped out by Gordon and the
+    Ever-Victorious Army, but also because he refused to accept Li
+    Hung Chang's sworn word to spare his life if he surrendered;
+    for well he knew that a death by torture awaited him. Gordon
+    himself, it was said, revolver in hand, and with tears of rage
+    streaming down his face, had sought to find and shoot the
+    Viceroy for the cruel murder of other leaders who had
+    surrendered to him under the solemn promise of their lives
+    being spared.</p>
+
+    <p>Late in the afternoon, a messenger came on board with a note
+    to the captain. It was from the mandarin Kwang, and contained
+    but a line. "Follow the bearer, who will guide you to the
+    prisoner."</p>
+
+    <p>An hour later Carpenter was conducted through a narrow door
+    which was set in a very high wall of great thickness. He found
+    himself in a garden of the greatest beauty, and magnificent
+    proportions. Temples and other buildings of the most elaborate
+    and artistic design and construction showed here and there amid
+    a profusion of gloriously-foliaged trees and flowering shrubs.
+    No sound broke the silence except the twittering of birds; and
+    not a single person was visible.</p>
+
+    <p>The guide, who had not yet uttered a single word, now turned
+    and motioned Carpenter to follow him along a winding path,
+    paved with white marble slabs,
+<!-- Page 233 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page228" name="page228">[pg 228]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    and bordered with gaily-hued flowers. Suddenly they emerged
+    upon a lovely sward of the brightest green, in the centre of
+    which a fountain played, sending its fine feathery spray high
+    in air.</p>
+
+    <p>On one side of the fountain were a number of "braves" who
+    stood in a close circle, and, as Carpenter approached, two of
+    them silently stepped out of the cordon, brought their rifles
+    to the salute, and the guide whispered to him to enter.</p>
+
+    <p>Within the circle was Kwang, who was seated in his chair of
+    office. He rose and greeted the captain politely.</p>
+
+    <p>"I promised you that you should again see the criminal in
+    whom you and your officers took such a deep and benevolent
+    interest. I now fulfil that promise&#8212;and leave you." And,
+    with a malevolent smile, he bowed and disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>The guide touched Carpenter's arm.</p>
+
+    <p>"Look," he said in a whisper.</p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Within a few inches of a wavering line of spray from the
+    fountain, purposely diverted so as to fall upon the grass, lay
+    what appeared at first sight to be a round bundle tied up in a
+    buffalo hide. A black swarm of flies buzzed and buzzed over and
+    around it.</p>
+
+    <p>"Draw near and look," said the harsh voice of the officer
+    who commanded the grim, silent guard, as he stepped up to the
+    strange-looking bundle, and waved his fan quickly to and fro
+    over a protuberance in the centre.</p>
+
+    <p>A black cloud of flies arose, and revealed a sight
+<!-- Page 234 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page229" name="page229">[pg 229]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    that will haunt Carpenter to his dying day&#8212;the purpled,
+    distorted face of a living man. The eyelids had been cut off,
+    and only two dreadful, bloodied, glaring things of horror
+    appealed mutely to God. The victim's knees had been drawn up to
+    his chin, and only his head was visible; for the fresh buffalo
+    hide in which his body had been sewn, fitted tightly around his
+    neck.</p>
+
+    <p>Shuddering with horror, and yet fascinated with the dreadful
+    spectacle, Carpenter asked the officer how long the prisoner
+    had been tortured.</p>
+
+    <p>"Four days," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>For the buffalo, the hide of which was to be the prisoner's
+    death-wrap, was in readiness the moment the steamer arrived,
+    and ten minutes after the signal was hoisted, the creature was
+    killed, the hide stripped off, and the prisoner sewn up in it,
+    only his head being left free.</p>
+
+    <p>Then he was carried to a heated room, so that the hide
+    should contract quickly. From there he was taken to the
+    fountain, where his eyelids were cut off, and then he was laid
+    upon the ground, his mouth just within a few inches of a spray
+    from the fountain.</p>
+
+    <p>And the Viceroy came, saw, approved, and smiled, and
+    assigned to Kwang the honoured post of watching his hated enemy
+    die under slow and agonising torture. To attract the flies,
+    honeyed water was applied to the prisoner's shaven head and
+    face. And the guards, now and then as his thirst increased,
+    offered him brine to drink.</p>
+
+    <p>"He is still alive," the brutal-faced Tartar officer
+<!-- Page 235 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page230" name="page230">[pg 230]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    said genially, as he touched one of the dreadful eyeballs, and
+    the poor, tortured creature's lips moved slightly.</p>
+
+    <p>Sick at heart and almost overcome with horror, Captain
+    Carpenter, with quickened footsteps, passed through the cordon
+    of guards, and followed his guide from the dreadful spot.</p>
+
+    <p>In a few minutes he was without the wall, and a sigh of
+    relief broke from him as he set out towards the river.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<!-- Page 236 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page231" name="page231">[pg 231]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='A_CRUISE_IN_THE_SOUTH_SEAS'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS</h2>
+
+    <h3>(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)</h3>
+
+<!-- Page 237 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page232" name="page232">[pg 232]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <hr />
+
+<!-- Page 238 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page233" name="page233">[pg 233]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    <a name='A_Cruise_in_the_South_Seas'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>
+      <i>A Cruise in the South Seas</i>
+    </h2>
+
+    <h3>(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)</h3>
+
+    <p>The traveller who makes a hurried trip in an excursion
+    steamer through the Cook, Society, Samoan, or Tongan Islands
+    has but little opportunity of seeing anything of the social
+    life of the natives, or getting either fishing or shooting; for
+    it is but rarely that the vessel remains for more than
+    forty-eight hours at any of the ports visited. Personally, if I
+    wanted to have an enjoyable cruise among the various island
+    groups in the South Pacific I should avoid the "excursion"
+    steamer as I would the plague. In the first place, one sees
+    next to nothing for his passage money if he fatuously takes a
+    ticket in either Sydney or New Zealand for "a round trip to
+    Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and back." Certainly, he will enjoy the
+    sea voyage, for in the Australasian winter months the weather
+    in the South Seas is never very hot, and cloudless skies and a
+    smooth sea may almost be relied upon from April until the end
+    of July. At such places as Nukualofa, the little capital of the
+    Tonga Islands, an excursion steamer will remain for perhaps
+    forty hours; at Apia, in Samoa, forty-eight hours; and at
+    Papeite, the
+<!-- Page 239 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page234" name="page234">[pg 234]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    capital of the French island of Tahiti, forty-eight hours. At
+    the two latter places the traveller will be charmed by the
+    lovely scenery, and disgusted by the squalid appearance of the
+    natives; for within the last ten years great changes have
+    occurred, and the native communities inhabiting the island
+    ports, such as Apia and Papeite, have degenerated into the
+    veriest loafers, spongers, and thieves. The appearance of a
+    strange European in any of the environs of Apia is the signal
+    for an onslaught of beggars of all ages and both sexes, who
+    will pester his life out for tobacco; if he says he does not
+    smoke, they say a sixpence will do as well. If he refuses he is
+    pretty sure to be insulted by some half-naked ruffian, and will
+    be glad to get back to the ship or to the refuge of an hotel.
+    And yet, away from the contaminating influences of the town the
+    white stranger will meet with politeness and respect wherever
+    he goes&#8212;particularly if he is an Englishman&#8212;and
+    will at once note the pleasing difference in the manners of the
+    natives. Yet it must now be remembered that Samoa&#8212;with
+    the exception of the beautiful island of Tutuila&#8212;is
+    German territory, and German officials are none too effusive to
+    Englishmen or Americans&#8212;in Samoa.</p>
+
+    <p>But if any one wants to spend an enjoyable time in the South
+    Seas let him avoid the "excursion ship" and go there in a
+    trading steamer. There are several of these now sailing out of
+    Australasian ports, and there is a choice of groups to visit.
+    If a four months' voyage is not too long, a passage may be
+    obtained in a small, but fairly fast and com
+<!-- Page 240 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page235" name="page235">[pg 235]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    fortable boat of 600 tons sailing from Sydney, which visits
+    over forty islands in her cruise from Niu&#233; or Savage
+    Island, ten days' steam from Sydney, to Jaluit in the Marshall
+    Islands. But this particular cruise I would not recommend to
+    any one in search of a variety of beautiful scenery, for nearly
+    all of the islands visited are of the one type&#8212;low-lying
+    sandy atolls, densely verdured with coco-palms, and very
+    monotonous from their sameness of appearance. Their
+    inhabitants, however, are widely different in manners, customs,
+    and general mode of life. To the ethnologist such a cruise
+    among the Ellice, Gilbert, and Marshall Islands would no doubt
+    be full of interest; but to the traveller in search of either
+    beautiful scenery or sport (except fishing) they would be
+    disappointing.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us suppose that the intending traveller desires to make
+    a stay of some two or three months in the Samoan Group. He can
+    reach there easily enough from Sydney or Auckland by steamer
+    once a month, either by one of the Union Steamship Company's
+    regular traders or by one of the San Francisco mail boats. From
+    Sydney the voyage occupies eight days, from Auckland five. The
+    outfit required for a three or four months' stay is not a large
+    one&#8212;light clothing can be bought almost as cheaply in
+    Samoa as in Sydney, a couple of guns with plenty of ammunition
+    (for cartridges are shockingly dear in the Islands), a large
+    and varied assortment of deep-sea tackle, a rod for fresh-water
+    or reef fishing, and a good waterproof and rugs for camping
+    out, as the early mornings are sometimes very chilly. And there
+    is one other thing
+<!-- Page 241 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page236" name="page236">[pg 236]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    that is worth while taking, even though it may cost from
+    &#163;30 to &#163;50 or so in Sydney&#8212;a good secondhand
+    boat, with two suits of sails. Thus provided the sportsman can
+    sail all along the coasts of Savaii and Upolu, and be
+    practically independent of the local storekeepers. To hire a
+    boat is very expensive, and to travel in native craft is
+    horribly uncomfortable, and risky as well. And such a boat can
+    always be sold again for at least its cost.</p>
+
+    <p>A stay of two or three days, or at most a week, in Apia is
+    quite long enough, and the stranger will get all the
+    information he requires about the outlying districts from the
+    Consuls or any of the old white residents. Such provisions as
+    are needed&#8212;tea, sugar, flour, biscuits, tinned or other
+    meats, &amp;c.&#8212;can be had at fairly cheap rates; but a
+    large stock should be taken, for, besides the keep of the
+    native crew of, say, four men, it must always be borne in mind
+    that a white visitor is expected to return the hospitality he
+    receives from the native chiefs by making a present, and the
+    Samoans are particularly susceptible to the charms of tinned
+    meats, sardines, salmon, and
+    <i>falaoa</i>
+
+    (bread or biscuit). That such a return should be made is only
+    just and natural, though I am sorry to say that very often it
+    is not. Then, again, it is very easy to stow away in the trade
+    box in the boat eight or ten pieces of good print, cut off in
+    pieces of six fathoms (which is enough to make a woman's gown),
+    about 30 lbs. of twist negrohead tobacco (twenty to thirty
+    sticks to the pound), half a gross of lucifer matches, and such
+    things as cotton, scissors, combs, &amp;c., and powder, caps,
+    and a
+<!-- Page 242 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page237" name="page237">[pg 237]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    bag of No. 3 shot for pigeon shooting. Now, this seems a lot of
+    articles for a man to take on a short Samoan
+    <i>malaga</i>
+
+    (journey), but it is not, and for the &#163;50 which it may
+    cost for such an outfit (exclusive of the boat and crew's
+    wages) the traveller will see more of the people and their mode
+    of life, be more hospitably received, and spend a pleasanter
+    time than if he were cruising about in a 1,000-ton yacht. The
+    wages or boatmen and native sailors in Samoa are usually $15.00
+    per month, but many will gladly go on a
+    <i>malaga</i>
+
+    (the general acceptance of the word is a pleasure trip) for
+    much less, for there is but little work, and much eating and
+    drinking. But, as sailors, the Samoans are a wretched lot, and
+    the local living Savage Islanders, as the natives of Niu&#233;
+    Island are called, are far better, especially if there is any
+    wind or a beat to windward in a heavy sea. These Savage Island
+    "boys" can always be obtained in Apia. They are good seamen and
+    very willing to work; but they have to be fed entirely by their
+    white employer, for the Samoans seldom make a present of food
+    to a crew of Niu&#233; boys, for whom they profess a contempt
+    and designate
+    <i>au pu&#225;a</i>
+
+    &#8212;
+    <i>i.e.</i>
+
+    , pigs.</p>
+
+    <p>The Samoan Group consists of five islands, trending from
+    west by north to east by south. The two largest are Upolu and
+    Savaii. Tutuila, and the Manua Group of three islands are too
+    far to the windward to attempt in a small boat against the
+    south-east trades. And it would take quite three months to
+    visit the principal villages on the two large islands, staying
+    a few days at each place.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 243 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page238" name="page238">[pg 238]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    The best plan is to make to windward along the coast of Upolu
+    after leaving Apia. A large boat cannot be taken all the way
+    inside the reef, owing to the many coral patches which, at low
+    tide, render this course impracticable. The first place of any
+    importance is Saluafata, fifteen miles from Apia (I must
+    mention that Apia is in the centre of Upolu, and on the north
+    side), then Falif&#257;, an exquisitely pretty place, and then
+    F&#257;goloa Bay and village, eight miles further on. This is
+    the deepest indentation in Samoa, except the famous P&#257;go
+    P&#257;go Harbour on Tutuila, and the scenery is very
+    beautiful. After leaving F&#257;goloa, the open sea has to be
+    taken, for there is now no barrier reef for ten miles, where it
+    begins at Samusu village, to the towns of Aleipata and
+    Lep&#257;, two of the best in the group, and inhabited by
+    cleanly and hospitable people. This is the weather point of
+    Upolu, and after leaving Lep&#257; the boat has a clear run of
+    over sixty miles before the glorious trades to the lee end of
+    the island&#8212;that is, unless a stay is made at the populous
+    towns of Falealilli, S&#257;fata, Laf&#257;ga, and Falelatai,
+    on the southern coast. The scenery along this part of the
+    island is enchanting, but sudden squalls at night-time are
+    sometimes frequent, from December to March, and 'tis always
+    advisable to run into a port at sunset.</p>
+
+    <p>Two miles off the lee end of Upolu is the low-lying island
+    of Manono, which is, however, enclosed in the Upolu barrier
+    reef. It is only about three miles in circumference,
+    exceedingly fertile, and is the most important place in the
+    group, owing to the political influence wielded by the chiefly
+    families who have
+<!-- Page 244 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page239" name="page239">[pg 239]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    always made it their home. A mile from Manono, and in the
+    centre of the deep strait separating Upolu from Savaii, is a
+    curiously picturesque spot, an island named Apolima.
+    <a href="#footnote_17" target="_new">
+      <span class="footnote">[17]</span>
+    </a>
+
+    It is an extinct crater, but has a narrow passage on the north
+    side, and is inhabited by about fifty people, who are delighted
+    to see any
+    <i>papalagi</i>
+
+    (foreigner) who is venturesome enough to make a landing
+    there.</p>
+
+    <p>Savaii is distant about ten miles from Upolu. Its coast is
+    for the most part
+    <i>itu papa</i>
+
+    &#8212;i.e., iron bound&#8212;but there are five populous towns
+    there&#8212;Palaulae, Salealua, Asaua, Matautu, and Safune.
+    After making the round of Savaii, the boat has to make back to
+    Manono, and then can proceed inside the reef all the way to
+    Apia, making stoppages at the many minor villages which stud
+    the shore at intervals of every few miles.</p>
+
+    <p>These
+    <i>malaga</i>
+
+    by boat along the coast or from one island to another are much
+    in favour with many of the white residents of Samoa, who find
+    their life in Apia very monotonous. European ladies frequently
+    accompany their husbands, and sometimes quite a large party is
+    made up. More than five-and-twenty years ago, when the writer
+    was gaining his first experiences of Samoan life, it was his
+    good fortune to be one of such a party, and a right merry time
+    he had of it among the natives; for in those days, although
+<!-- Page 245 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page240" name="page240">[pg 240]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    there was party warfare occasionally, the group was free from
+    the savage hatreds and dissensions&#8212;largely fomented by
+    the interference and intrigues of unscrupulous traders and
+    incapable officials&#8212;which for the past ten or twelve
+    years have made it notorious.</p>
+
+    <p>In travelling in Samoa one need not always rely upon native
+    hospitality. Though most of the white traders at the outlying
+    villages nowadays make nothing beyond a scanty living, they are
+    as a rule very hospitable and pleased to see and entertain
+    white visitors as well as their poor means will allow, and in
+    nine cases out of ten would feel hurt if they were ignored and
+    the native teacher's house visited first; for between the
+    average trader and the native teacher there is always a natural
+    and yet reasonable jealousy. And here let me say a word in
+    praise of the Samoan teacher&#8212;in Samoa. Away from his
+    native land, in charge of a mission station in another part of
+    Polynesia or Melanesia, he is too often pompous and overbearing
+    alike to his flock and to the white trader. Here he is far from
+    the control and supervision of the white missionaries, who only
+    visit him twice in the year, and consequently he thinks himself
+    a man of vast importance. But in Samoa his superiors are prompt
+    to curb any inclination he may evince to ride the high horse
+    over his flock or interfere with any matter not strictly
+    connected with his charge. So, in Samoa, the native teacher is
+    generally a good fellow, the soul of hospitality, and anxious
+    to entertain any chance white visitor; and although the Samoans
+    are not bigoted ranters like the Tongans or
+<!-- Page 246 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page241" name="page241">[pg 241]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    Fijians, and the teachers have not anything like the undue and
+    improper influence over the people possessed by the native
+    ministers in Tonga or Fiji, to needlessly offend one would be
+    resented by the villagers and make the visitor's stay anything
+    but pleasant. As for the white missionaries in Samoa, all I
+    need say of them is that they are gentlemen, and that the words
+    "Mission House" are synonymous in most cases with warm welcome
+    to the traveller.</p>
+
+    <p>Travelling inland in Savaii or crossing Upolu from north to
+    south, or
+    <i>vice-vers&#226;,</i>
+
+    is very delightful, though one misses much of the lovely
+    scenery that unfolds itself in a panorama-like manner when
+    sailing along the coast. One journey that can easily be
+    accomplished in a day is that from Apia to Safata. Carriers are
+    easily obtainable, and some splendid pigeon shooting can be had
+    an hour or two after leaving Apia till within a few miles of
+    Safata. Pigeons are about the only game to be had in Samoa,
+    though the
+    <i>manutagi</i>
+
+    , or ring-dove, is very plentiful, but one hardly likes to
+    shoot such dear little creatures. Occasionally one may get a
+    wild duck or two and some fearful-looking wild fowls&#8212;the
+    progeny of the domestic fowl. Wild pigs are not now plentiful
+    in Upolu though they are in Savaii, but they are exceedingly
+    difficult to shoot and the country they frequent is fearfully
+    rough. In some of the streams there are some very good fish,
+    running up to 2 lbs. or 3 lbs. They bite eagerly at the
+    <i>ula</i>
+
+    or freshwater prawn, and are excellent eating; and yet, strange
+    to say, very few of the white residents in the group even know
+    of their existence. This applies also to
+<!-- Page 247 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page242" name="page242">[pg 242]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    deep-sea fishing; for although the deep water outside the reefs
+    and the passages leading into the harbours teem with splendid
+    fish, the residents of Apia are content to buy the wretched
+    things brought to them by women who capture them in nets in the
+    shallow water inside the reef. Once, during my stay on Manono,
+    a young Manhiki half-caste and myself went out in our boat
+    about a mile from the land, and in thirty fathoms of water
+    caught in an hour three large-scaled fish of the groper
+    species. These fish, though once familiar enough to the people
+    of the island, are now never fished for, and our appearance
+    with our prizes caused quite an excitement in the village,
+    everyone thronging around us to look. And yet there are two or
+    three varieties of groper&#8212;many of them weighing 50 lbs.
+    or 60 lbs.&#8212;which can be caught anywhere on the Samoan
+    coast; but the Samoan of the present day has sadly degenerated,
+    and, except bonito catching, deep-sea fishing is one of the
+    lost arts. But at almost any place in the group, except Apia,
+    great quantities of fish are caught inside the reefs by nets,
+    and one may always be sure of getting a splendid mullet of some
+    sort for either breakfast or supper.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us suppose that a party of Europeans have arrived at a
+    village, and are the guests of the chief and people generally.
+    Food is at once brought to them, even before any visits of
+    ceremony are paid, for the news of the coming of a party of
+    travellers has doubtless been brought to the village the
+    previous day by a messenger from the last stopping-place. The
+    repast provided may be simple, but will be ample,
+<!-- Page 248 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page243" name="page243">[pg 243]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    baked pork most likely being the
+    <i>pi&#232;ce de r&#233;sistance,</i>
+
+    with roast fowl, baked pigeons, breadfruit (if in season), and
+    yams or taro, with a plentiful supply of young
+    drinking-coconuts. (Should the host be the local teacher, some
+    deplorable tea and a loaf of terrible bread are sure to be
+    produced.) This preliminary meal finished, the formalities
+    begin by a visit from the chief and his
+    <i>tulafale,</i>
+
+    or "talking-man," accompanied by the leading citizens. The
+    talking-man then makes a speech, welcoming the guests, and is
+    by no means sparing of "buttery" phrases which indicate the
+    intense delight, &amp;c., of the inhabitants of the village at
+    having the honoured privilege of entertaining such noble and
+    distinguished visitors, &amp;c. A suitable reply is made by the
+    guests (through an interpreter, if no one among them can speak
+    Samoan), and then follows a ceremonious brewing and drinking of
+    kava. This is a most important function in Samoa, and to the
+    stranger unaccustomed to the manner of making the beverage, the
+    ordeal of drinking it is an exceedingly trying one. It is
+    prepared as follows: The dried kava root is cut up in thin
+    slices and handed to a number of young women, who masticate it
+    and then deposit it in a large wooden
+    <i>tanoa</i>
+
+    , or bowl. Water is then added in sufficient quantity till the
+    <i>tanoa</i>
+
+    is half-filled with a thin yellowish-green liquid, which is
+    carefully strained by a thick "swab" of the beaten bark of the
+    <i>fau</i>
+
+    -tree. This straining operation is performed only by a very
+    experienced lady, and is watched in respectful silence. Then
+    the drink is handed round in a polished bowl of coconut-shell.
+    But for a full
+<!-- Page 249 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page244" name="page244">[pg 244]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    description of all the details of a kava-drinking, let me
+    commend my readers to the best and most charming book ever
+    written on South Sea life, "South Sea Bubbles," by the late
+    Earl of Pembroke and Dr. Kingsley. Nowadays, however, many
+    Samoan households, out of deference to European tastes, have
+    the kava root grated instead of being chewed.</p>
+
+    <p>The kava-drinking over, all stiffness and formality
+    disappears for the time, and the visitors are surrounded by the
+    villagers, eager to learn the latest news from Apia, and from
+    the world abroad. The discussion of political matters always
+    has a strong attraction for Samoans, who are anxious to learn
+    the state of affairs in Europe, and their knowledge and
+    shrewdness is surprising. Should there be any white ladies
+    present, the brown ones make much of them. The Samoans are a
+    fine, handsome race, and the faces and figures of many of the
+    young women are very attractive; but the practice of cutting
+    off their long, flowing black hair, and allowing it to grow in
+    a short, stiff "frizz" is all too common, and detracts very
+    much from an otherwise handsome and graceful appearance,
+    especially when the hair is coated with lime in order to change
+    its colour to red. Many of the men, particularly those of
+    chiefly rank, are of magnificent stature and proportions, and
+    their walk and carriage are in consonance.</p>
+
+    <p>An announcement that the visitors intend to go pigeon
+    shooting is warmly applauded, and each white man is at once
+    provided with a guide, for, unless he has had experience of the
+    Samoan forest, he will return
+<!-- Page 250 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page245" name="page245">[pg 245]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    with an empty bag, as, however plentiful the birds may be,
+    their habit of hiding in the branches of the lofty
+    <i>tamanu</i>
+
+    and
+    <i>masa'oi</i>
+
+    -trees render them difficult of detection. The natives
+    themselves are very good shots, and very rarely fail to bring
+    down a bird, even when nothing more than a scarlet leg or a
+    blue-grey feather is visible. The guns they use are very
+    common, cheap German affairs, but are specially made for Samoa,
+    being very small bored and long in the barrel. The best time is
+    in the early morning and towards the cool of the evening, when
+    the birds are feeding on
+    <i>masa'oi</i>
+
+    and other berries; during the heat of the day they seldom leave
+    their perches, though their deep crooning note may be heard
+    everywhere. In the mountainous interiors of Upolu and Savaii
+    there is but little undergrowth; the ground is carpeted with a
+    thick layer of leaves, dry on the top, but rain and dew-soaked
+    beneath, and simply to breathe the sweet, cool mountain air is
+    delightful. At certain times of the year the birds are very
+    fat, and I have very often seen them literally burst when
+    striking the ground after being shot in high trees. Their
+    flavour is delicious, especially if they are hung for a day. I
+    may here remark that, in New Britain, precisely the same
+    species of pigeon is very often quite uneatable through feeding
+    upon Chili berries, which in that island grow in profusion. In
+    shooting in a Samoan forest one has nothing to fear from
+    venomous reptiles, for, although there are two or three kinds
+    of snakes, they are rarely ever seen and quite harmless.
+    Scorpions and centipedes&#8212;the latter often six inches in
+    length&#8212;there are in plenty, but these
+<!-- Page 251 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page246" name="page246">[pg 246]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    detestable vermin are more common in European habitations than
+    in the bush. At the same time, mosquitoes are a terrible
+    annoyance anywhere in the vicinity of water, and delight in
+    attacking the tender skin of the stranger. Then, again, beware
+    of scratching any exposed part of the skin, for, unless it is
+    quickly covered by plaister or otherwise attended to, an
+    irritating sore, which may take months to heal, will often
+    result.</p>
+
+    <p>There are, during the visit of a travelling party to a
+    Samoan town, no fixed times for meals. You are expected to eat
+    much and often. During the day there will be continuous
+    arrivals of people bringing baskets of provisions as presents,
+    which are formally presented&#8212;with a speech. The speech
+    has to be responded to, and the bringers of the presents
+    treated politely, as long as they remain, and they remain until
+    their curiosity&#8212;and avarice&#8212;is satisfied. A return
+    present must be sent on the following day; for although Samoans
+    designate every present of food or anything else made to a
+    party of visitors as an "alofa"&#8212;
+    <i>i.e.,</i>
+
+    a gift of love&#8212;this is but a hollow conventionalism, it
+    being the time-honoured custom of the country to always give a
+    <i>quid pro quo</i>
+
+    for whatever has been received. Yet it must not be imagined
+    that they are a selfish people; if the recipients of an "alofa"
+    of food are too poor to respond otherwise than by a profusion
+    of thanks, the donors of the "alofa" are satisfied&#8212;it
+    would be a disgrace for their village to be spoken of as having
+    treated guests meanly.</p>
+
+    <p>
+<!-- Page 252 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page247" name="page247">[pg 247]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    After evening service&#8212;conducted on week-days in each
+    house by the head of the family&#8212;another meal is served.
+    Then either lamps or a fire of coconut-shells is lit, and there
+    is a great making of
+    <i>sului</i>
+
+    , or cigarettes of strong tobacco rolled in dry banana leaf,
+    and there is much merry jostling and shoving among the young
+    lads and girls for a seat on the matted floor, to hear the
+    white people talk. A dance is sure to be suggested, and
+    presently the
+    <i>fale po-ula,</i>
+
+    or dance-house, is lit up in preparation, as the dancers, male
+    and female, hurry away to adorn themselves. Much has been said
+    about the impropriety of Samoa dancing by travellers who have
+    only witnessed the degrading and indecent exhibitions, given on
+    a large scale by the loafing class of natives who inhabit Apia
+    and its immediate vicinity. The natives are an adaptive race,
+    and suit their manners to their company, and there are always
+    numbers of sponging men and
+    <i>paumotu</i>
+
+    (beach-women) ready to pander to the tastes of low whites who
+    are willing to witness a lewd dance. But in most villages,
+    situated away from the contaminating influences of the
+    principal port, a native
+    <i>siva</i>
+
+    , or dance, is well worth witnessing, and the accompanying
+    singing is very melodious. It is, however, true, that on
+    important occasions, such as the marriage of a great chief,
+    &amp;c., that the dancing, decorous enough in the earlier
+    stages of the evening, degenerates under the influence of
+    excitement into an exhibition that provokes sorrow and disgust.
+    And yet, curiously enough, the dancers at these times are not
+    low class, common people, but young men and women
+<!-- Page 253 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page248" name="page248">[pg 248]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    of high lineage, who, led by the
+    <i>taupo</i>
+
+    , or maid of the village, cast aside all restraint and modesty.
+    In many of the dances the costumes are exceedingly pretty, the
+    men wearing aprons made of the yellow and scarlet leaves of the
+
+    <i>ti</i>
+
+    or dracoena plant, with head-dresses formed of pieces of
+    iridescent pearl-shell, intermixed with silver coins and
+    scarlet and amber beads, and the hair of both sexes is
+    profusely adorned with the scarlet flowers of the hibiscus,
+    while from their necks depend large strings of
+    <i>sea-sea, masa'oi,</i>
+
+    and other brightly-coloured and sweet-smelling berries. Of late
+    years the Tahitian fashion of wearing thick wreaths of orange
+    or lemon blossoms has come into vogue.</p>
+
+    <p>Before concluding these remarks upon Samoa, I must mention
+    that the climate is very healthy for the greater part of the
+    year; but in the rainy season, December to March, the heat is
+    intense, and sickness is often prevalent, especially in Apia.
+    Still fever, such as is met with in the New Hebrides and the
+    Solomon Group, "the grave of the white man in the South Seas,"
+    is unknown, and one may sleep in the open air with impunity.
+    Before setting out from Apia the services of a competent
+    interpreter should be secured&#8212;a man who thoroughly
+    understands the Samoan
+    <i>customs</i>
+
+    as well as the language. Plenty of reliable half-castes can
+    always be found, any one of whom would be glad to engage for a
+    very moderate payment. Too often the pleasures of such a trip
+    as I have described have been marred by the interpreter's lack
+    of tact and knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the in
+<!-- Page 254 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page249" name="page249">[pg 249]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    habitants of the various districts and villages. The mere fact
+    of a man being able to speak the language fairly well is not
+    the all in all; for the Samoans are a highly sensitive people,
+    and the omission by the interpreter of a chief's titles,
+    &amp;c., when the guests are responding through him to an
+    address of welcome, would be considered "shockingly bad
+    form."</p>
+
+    <p>But the reader must not imagine that the Samoan Group is the
+    only one in the South Pacific where an enjoyable holiday may be
+    spent. The French possession of the Society Islands, of which
+    the pretty town Papeite, in the noble island of Tahiti, is the
+    capital, rivals, if not exceeds, Samoa in the magnificence of
+    its scenery, and the natives are a highly intelligent race of
+    Malayo-Polynesians who, despite their being citizens of the
+    French Republic, never forget that they were redeemed from
+    savagery by Englishmen, and a
+    <i>taata Peretane</i>
+
+    (Englishman) is an ever-welcome guest to them. The facilities
+    for visiting the different islands of the Society Group are
+    very good, for there is quite a fleet of native and
+    European-owned vessels constantly cruising throughout the
+    archipelago. To cross the island of Tahiti from its south-east
+    to its north-west point is one of the most delightful trips
+    imaginable. Then again, the Hervey or Cook's Group, which
+    consist of the fertile islands of Mangaia, Rarotonga, Atui,
+    Aitutaki, and Mauki, are well worth visiting. The people speak
+    a language similar to that of Tahiti, and they are a fine,
+    hospitable race, albeit a little over-civilised. Both of these
+    groups can be reached from Auckland by sailing vessels,
+<!-- Page 255 -->
+    <span class="pagenum">
+      <a id="page250" name="page250">[pg 250]</a>
+    </span>
+
+    but not direct from Sydney. As for the lonely islands of the
+    North Pacific, they are too far afield for any one to visit but
+    the trader or the traveller to whom time is nothing.</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <a name='FOOTNOTES'>
+    </a>
+
+    <h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_1">1</a>
+
+    : Literally, "clear crony."</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_2">2</a>
+
+    : Port.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_3">3</a>
+
+    : Happiness.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_4">4</a>
+
+    : A libertine, profligate.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_5">5</a>
+
+    : My love to you, P&#226;k&#237;a; are you well?</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_6">6</a>
+
+    : White foreigners.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_7">7</a>
+
+    : Frank.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_8">8</a>
+
+    : Small-pox.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_9">9</a>
+
+    : An accordion.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_10">10</a>
+
+    : Idler, gad about&#8212;a Samoan expression.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_11">11</a>
+
+    : German.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_12">12</a>
+
+    : The Tokelau and Ellice Islanders are much amused at the white
+    man's method of hauling in a heavy fish hand
+    <i>over</i>
+
+    hand. This to them is "
+    <i>faka fafine</i>
+
+    "&#8212;i.e., like a woman.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_13">13</a>
+
+    : Cayse.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_14">14</a>
+
+    : NOTE BY THE PUBLISHER.&#8212;This incident is related by the
+    author in "By Reef and Palm" under the title of "The Rangers of
+    the Tia Kau."</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_15">15</a>
+
+    : PUBLISHER'S NOTE.&#8212;This Alan Strickland is the "Allan"
+    who has so frequently figured in the author's other tales of
+    South Sea life, notably in the works entitled "By Reef and
+    Palm" and "The Ebbing of the Tide."</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_16">16</a>
+
+    : Councillors.</p>
+
+    <p class="footnote">
+    <a name="footnote_17">17</a>
+
+    :
+    <i>Apo! lima</i>
+
+    ! "Be quick with your hand!" The passage is narrow and
+    dangerous, even for canoes, and the steersman, as he watches
+    the rolling surf, calls out
+    <i>Apo, lau lima</i>
+
+    ! to his crew&#8212;an expression synonymous to our nautical,
+    "Pull like the devil!"</p>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+and Other Stories, by Louis Becke
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+  </body>
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+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and
+Other Stories, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2004 [EBook #12798]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROCK AND POOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David McLachlan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+             ***NOTE TO READERS***
+
+This file is encoded using the ASCII character set.
+
+The text in this file contains a number of characters not contained in
+the standard ASCII character set. To enable the display of these
+characters the following alternatives have been placed in the text:
+
+    A macron is indicated by the character | immediately after the
+    accented letter. For example a| is used to indicate the letter a
+    with a macron diacritical.
+
+    A breve is indicated by the character ~ immediately after the
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+
+The characters | and ~ only appear in the text to indicate the
+diacritical accents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_By_ ROCK & POOL
+On An Austral Shore
+
+_By_ LOUIS BECKE
+
+AUTHOR OF "PACIFIC TALES,"
+"BY REEF AND PALM," ETC., ETC.
+
+New Amsterdam Book Company
+156 FIFTH AVENUE: NEW YORK CITY: MCMI
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+BY ROCK AND POOL
+
+SOLEPA
+
+THE FISHER FOLK OF NUKUFETAU
+
+MRS. MACLAGGAN'S BILLY
+
+AN ISLAND MEMORY
+
+A HUNDRED FATHOMS DEEP
+
+ON A TIDAL RIVER
+
+DENISON GETS ANOTHER SHIP
+
+JACK SHARK'S PILOT
+
+THE "PALU" OF THE EQUATORIAL PACIFIC
+
+THE WILY "GOANNER"
+
+THE TA~NIFA OF SAMOA
+
+ON BOARD THE _TUCOPIA_
+
+THE MAN IN THE BUFFALO HIDE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS--HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS
+
+
+
+
+_By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore_
+
+
+The quaint, old-fashioned little town faces eastward to the blue
+Pacific, whose billows, when the wind blows from any point between north
+and east, come tumbling in across the shallow bar in ceaseless lines of
+foaming white, to meet, when the tide is on the ebb, the swift current
+of a tidal river as broad as the Thames at Westminster Bridge. On the
+south side of the bar, from the sleepy town itself to the pilot station
+on the Signal Hill, there rises a series of smooth grassy bluffs, whose
+seaward bases touch the fringe of many small beaches, or start sheer
+upward from the water when the tide is high, and the noisy swish and
+swirl of the eager river current has ceased.
+
+As you stand on the Signal Hill, and look along the coast, you see a
+long, long monotonous line of beach, trending northward ten miles from
+end to end, forming a great curve from the sandspit on the north side of
+the treacherous bar to the blue loom of a headland in shape like the
+figure of a couchant lion. Back from the shore-line, a narrow littoral
+of dense scrub, impervious to the rays of the sun, and unbroken in its
+solitude except by the cries of birds, or the heavy footfall of wild
+cattle upon the thick carpet of fallen leaves; and then, far to the
+west, the dimmed, shadowy outline of the main coastal range.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a keen, frosty morning in June--the midwinter of Australia--and as
+the red sun bursts through the sea-rim, a gentle land breeze creeps
+softly down from the mountain forest of gums and iron-barks, and blows
+away the mists that, all through a night of cloudless calm, have laid
+heavily upon the surface of the sleeping ocean. One by one the doors of
+the five little white-painted, weather-boarded houses which form the
+quarters of the pilot-boat's crew open, and five brown, hairy-faced men,
+each smoking a pipe, issue forth, and, hands in pockets, scan the
+surface of the sea from north to south, for perchance a schooner, trying
+to make the port, may have been carried along by the current from the
+southward, and is within signalling distance to tell her whether the bar
+is passable or not. For the bar of the Port is as changeable in its
+moods as the heart of a giddy maid to her lovers--to-day it may invite
+you to come in and take possession of its placid waters in the harbour
+beyond; to-morrow it may roar and snarl with boiling surf and savage,
+eddying currents, and whirlpools slapping fiercely against the grim,
+black rocks of the southern shore.
+
+Look at the five men as they stand or saunter about on the smooth,
+frosty grass. They are sailormen--one and all--as you can see by their
+walk and hear by their talk; rough, ready, and sturdy, though not so
+sturdy nor so square-built as your solid men of brave old Deal; but a
+long way better in appearance and character than the sponging,
+tip-seeking, loafing fraternity of slouching, lazy robbers who on the
+parades of Brighton, Hastings, and Eastbourne, and other fashionable
+seaside resorts in this country, lean against lamp-posts with "Licensed
+Boatman" writ on their hat-bands, and call themselves fishermen, though
+they seldom handle a herring or cod that does not come from a
+fishmonger's shop. These Australians of British blood are leaner in
+face, leaner in limb than the Kentish men, and drink whiskey instead of
+coffee or tea at early morn. But see them at work in the face of danger
+and death on that bar, when the surf is leaping high and a schooner lies
+broadside on and helpless to the sweeping rollers, and you will say that
+a more undaunted crew never gripped an oar to rescue a fellow-sailorman
+from the hungry sea.
+
+One of them, a grey-haired, deeply-bronzed man of sixty, with his neck
+and hands tatooed in strange markings, imprinted thereon by the hands of
+the wild natives of Tucopia, in the South Seas, with whom he has lived
+forty years before as one of themselves, is mine own particular friend
+and crony, for his two sons have been playmates with my brothers and
+myself, who were all born in this quaint old-time seaport of the first
+colony in Australia; this forgotten remnant of the dread days of the
+awful convict system, when the clank of horrible gyves sounded on the
+now deserted and grass-grown streets, and the swish of the hateful and
+ever active "cat" was heard within the walls of the huge red-brick
+prison on the bluff facing the sea. Oh, the old, old memories of those
+hideous times! How little they wounded or troubled our boyish minds, as
+we, bent on some fishing or hunting venture along the coast, walked
+along a road which had been first soddened by tears and then dried by
+the panting, anguished breathings of beings fashioned in the image of
+their Creator, as they toiled and died under the brutal hands of their
+savage task-masters--the civilian officials of that cruel "System"
+which, by the irony of fate, the far-seeing, gentle, and tender-hearted
+Arthur Phillip, the founder of Australia, was first appointed to
+administer.
+
+But away with such memories for the moment. Over the lee side with them
+into the Sea of the Past, together with the clank of the fetters and the
+hum of the cat and the merciless laws of the time; sink them all
+together with the names of the military rum-selling traducers of the
+good Phillip, and of ill-tempered, passionate sailor Bligh of the
+_Bounty_--honest, brave, irascible, vindictive; destroyer of his ship's
+company on that fateful adventure to Tahiti, hero of the most famous
+boat-voyage the world has ever known; sea-bully and petty "hazer" of
+hapless Fletcher Christian and his comrades, gallant officer in battle
+and thanked by Nelson at Copenhagen; conscientious governor of a
+starveling colony gasping under the hands of unscrupulous military
+money-makers, William Bligh deserves to be remembered by all men of
+English blood who are proud of the annals of the most glorious navy in
+the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But ere we descend to the beach to wander by rock and pool in this
+glowing Australian sun, the warm, loving rays of which are fast drying
+the frost-coated grass, let us look at these square, old-time monuments
+to the dead, placed on the Barrack Hill, and overlooking the sea. There
+are four in all, but around them are many low, sunken headstones of
+lichen-covered slabs, the inscriptions on which, like many of those on
+the stones in the cemetery by the reedy creek, have long since vanished.
+
+There, indeed, if you care to brave the snake-haunted place you will
+discover a word, or the part of a word--"Talav----," "Torre----Vedras,"
+"Vimiera," or "Badaj----," or "Fuentes de On----," and you know that
+underneath lies the dust of men who served their country well when the
+Iron Duke was rescuing Europe from the grip of the bloodstained
+Corsican. On one, which for seventy years has faced the rising sun and
+the salty breath of the ocean breeze, there remains but the one glorious
+word, "Aboukir!" every indented letter thickly filled with grey moss and
+lichen, though the name of he who fought there has disappeared, and
+being but that of some humble seaman, is unrecorded and unknown in the
+annals of his country. How strange it seems! but yet how fitting that
+this one word alone should be preserved by loving Nature from the
+decaying touch of Time. Perhaps the very hand of the convict mason who
+held the chisel to the stone struck deeper as he carved the letters of
+the name of the glorious victory.
+
+But let us away from here; for in the hot summer months amid these
+neglected and decaying memorials of the dead, creeping and crawling in
+and out of the crumbling masonry of the tombs, gliding among the long,
+reedy grass, or lying basking in the sun upon the fallen headstones, are
+deadly black and brown snakes. They have made this old, time-forgotten
+cemetery their own favourite haunting place; for the waters of the creek
+are near, and on its margin they find their prey. Once, so the shaky old
+wharfinger will tell you, a naval lieutenant, who had been badly wounded
+in the first Maori war, died in the commandant's house. He was buried
+here on the bank of the creek, and one day his young wife who had come
+from England to nurse him and found him dead, sat down on his grave and
+went to sleep. When she awoke, a great black snake was lying on her
+knees. She died that day from the shock.
+
+The largest of these four monuments on the bluff stands nearest to the
+sea, and the inscription on the heavy flat slab of sandstone which
+covers it is fairly legible:--
+
+      Sacred to the Memory of
+           JAMES VAUGHAN,
+    Who was a Private in Captain
+       Fraser Allan's Company
+       of the 40th Regiment,
+Who died on the 24th November, 1823,
+    of a Gunshot Wound Received
+   on the 20th Day of the Month,
+       when in Pursuit of a
+         Runaway Convict.
+          Aged 25 years.
+
+The others record the names of the "infant son and daughters of Mr. G.
+Smith, Commissariat Storekeeper," and of "Edward Marvin, who died 4th
+July, 1821, aged 21 years."
+
+Many other sunken headstones denote the last resting-places of soldiers
+and sailors, and civilian officials, who died between 1821 and 1830,
+when the little port was a thriving place, and when, as the old gossips
+will tell you, it made a "rare show, when the Governor came here, and
+Major Innes--him as brought that cussed lantana plant from the
+Peninsula--sent ninety mounted men to escort him to Lake Innes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The tide is low, and the flat _congewoi_-covered ledges of reef on the
+southern side of the bar lie bare and exposed to the sun. Here and there
+in the crystal pools among the rocks, fish have been left by the tide,
+and as you step over the _congewoi_, whose teats spurt out jets of
+water to the pressure of your foot, large silvery bream and gaily-hued
+parrot-fish rush off and hide themselves from view. But tear off a piece
+of _congewoi,_ open it, and throw the sanguinary-coloured delicacy into
+the water, and presently you will see the parrot-fish dart out eagerly,
+and begin to tear it asunder with their long, irregular, and needle-like
+teeth, whilst the more cautious and lordly bream, with wary eye and
+gentle, undulating tail, watch from underneath a ledge for a favourable
+moment to dash out and secure a morsel.
+
+In some of the wider and shallower ponds are countless thousands of
+small mullet, each about three or four inches in length, and swimming
+closely together in separated but compact battalions. Some, as the sound
+of a human footstep warns them of danger, rush for safety among the
+submerged clefts and crevices of their temporary retreat, only to be
+mercilessly and fatally enveloped by the snaky, viscous tentacles of the
+ever-lurking octopus, for every hole and pool among the rocks contains
+one or more of these hideously repulsive creatures.
+
+Sometimes you will see one crawling over the _congewoi_, changing from
+one pool to another in search of prey; its greeny-grey eyes regard you
+with defiant malevolence. Strike it heavily with a stick, or thrust it
+through with a spear, and in an instant its colour, which a moment
+before was either a dark mottled brown or a mingled reddish-black,
+changes to a ghastly, horrible, marbled grey; the horrid tentacles
+writhe and cling to the weapon, or spread out and adhere to the
+surrounding points of rock, a black, inky fluid is ejected from the
+soft, pulpy, and slimy body; and then, after raining blow after blow
+upon it, it lies unable to crawl away, but still twisting and turning,
+and showing its red and white suckers--a thing of horror indeed, the
+embodiment of all that is hateful, wicked, and malignant in nature.
+
+Some idea of the numbers of these crafty and savage denizens of the
+limpid pools may be obtained by dropping a baited fishing line in one of
+the deeper spots. First you will see one, and then another, thin end of
+a tentacle come waveringly out from underneath a ledge of rock, and
+point towards the bait, then the rest of the ugly creature follows, and
+gathering itself together, darts upon the hook, for the possession of
+which half a dozen more of its fellows are already advancing, either
+swimming or by drawing themselves over the sandy bottom of the pool.
+Deep buried in the sand itself is another, a brute which may weigh ten
+or fifteen pounds, and which would take all the strength of a strong man
+to overcome were its loathsome tentacles clasped round his limbs in
+their horrid embrace. Only part of the head and the half-closed,
+tigerish eyes are visible, and even these portions are coated over with
+fine sand so as to render them almost undistinguishable from the bed in
+which it lies awaiting for some careless crab or fish to come within
+striking distance. How us boys delighted to destroy these big fellows
+when we came across one thus hidden in the sand or _debris_ on the
+bottom! A quick thrust of the spear through the tough, elongated head,
+a vision of whirling, outspread, red and black snaky tentacles, and then
+the thing is dragged out by main strength and dashed down upon the
+rocks, to be struck with waddies or stones until the spear can be
+withdrawn. Everything, it is said, has its use in this world, and the
+octopus is eminently useful to the Australian line fisherman, for the
+bream, trevally, flathead, jew-fish, and the noble schnapper dearly love
+its tough, white flesh, especially after the creature has been held over
+a flame for a few minutes, so that the mottled skin may be peeled off.
+
+But treacherous and murderous Thug of the Sea as he is, the octopus has
+one dreaded foe before whom he flees in terror, and compresses his body
+into the narrowest and most inaccessible cleft or endeavours to bury
+himself in the loose, soft sand--and that foe is the orange-coloured or
+sage-green rock eel. Never do you see one of these eels in the open
+water; they lie deep under the stones or twine their lithe, slippery
+bodies among the waving kelp or seaweed. Always hungry, savage-eyed, and
+vicious, they know no fear of any living thing, and seizing an octopus
+and biting off tentacle after tentacle with their closely-set,
+needle-like teeth and swallowing it whole is a matter of no more moment
+to them than the bolting of a tender young mullet or bream. In vain does
+the Sea Thug endeavour to enwrap himself round and round the body of one
+of these sinuous, scaleless sea-snakes and fasten on to it with his
+terrible cupping apparatus of suckers--the eel slips in and out and
+"wolfs" and worries his enemy without the slightest harm to itself.
+Some of them are large--especially the orange-coloured variety--three or
+four feet in length, and often one will raise his snaky head apparently
+out of solid rock and regard you steadily for a moment. Then he
+disappears. You advance cautiously to the spot and find a hole no larger
+than the circumference of an afternoon tea cup, communicating with the
+water beneath. Lower a baited hook with a strong wire snooding, and
+"Yellowskin" will open wide his jaws and swallow it without your feeling
+the slightest movement of the line. But you must be quick and strong of
+hand then, or you will never drag him forth, for slippery as he is he
+can coil his length around a projecting bit of rock and defy you for
+perhaps five or ten minutes; and then when you do succeed in tearing him
+away and pull him out with the hook buried deep in his loose, pendulous,
+wrinkled and corduroyed throat, he instantly resolves himself into a
+quivering Gordian knot, winding the line in and about his coils and
+knotting it into such knots that can never be unravelled.
+
+Here and there you will see lying buried deep in the growing coral, or
+covered with black masses of _congewoi_ such things as iron and copper
+bolts, or heavy pieces of squared timber, the relics of the many wrecks
+that have occurred on the bar--some recent, some in years long gone by.
+Out there, lying wedged in between the weed and kelp-covered boulders,
+only visible at low water, are two of the guns of the ill-fated
+_Wanderer_, a ship, like her owner, famous in the history of the
+colony. She was the property of a Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a man of flocks and
+herds and wealth, who founded a town and a great whaling station on the
+shores of Twofold Bay, where he employed some hundreds of men, bond and
+free. He was of an adventurous and restless disposition, and after
+making several voyages to the South Seas, was cruelly cut off and
+murdered by the cannibal natives of Guadalcanar in the Solomon Islands,
+in the "fifties." The captain, after beating off the savages, who,
+having killed poor Boyd on shore, made a determined attempt to capture
+the ship, set sail for Australia, and in endeavouring to cross in over
+the bar went ashore and became a total wreck. Here is a description
+written by Judge McFarland of the _Wanderer_ as she was in those days
+when Boyd dreamed a dream of founding a Republic in the South Sea
+Islands with his wild crew of Polynesians and a few white fellow
+adventurers:--
+
+"She was of 240 tons burthen; very fleet, and had a flush deck; and her
+cabins were fitted up with every possible attention to convenience, and
+with great elegance; and had she been intended as a war craft, she could
+scarcely have been more powerfully armed, for she carried four brass
+deck-guns--two six-pounders and two four-pounders--mounted on carriages
+resembling dolphins, four two-pounder rail guns--two on each side--and
+one brass twelve-pounder traversing gun (which had seen service at
+Waterloo)--in all thirteen serviceable guns. Besides these, there were
+two small, highly-ornamented guns used for firing signals, which were
+said to have been obtained from the wreck of the _Royal George_ at
+Spithead. There were also provided ample stores of round shot and grape
+for the guns, and a due proportion of small arms, boarding pikes,
+tomahawks, &c."
+
+Half a mile further on, and we are under the Signal Hill, and standing
+on one side of a wide, flat rock, through which a boat passage has been
+cut by convict hands, when first the white tents of the soldiers were
+seen on the Barrack Hill. And here, at this same spot, more than a
+hundred years ago, and thirty before the sound of the axe was first
+heard amid the forest or tallow-woods and red gum, there once landed a
+strange party of sea-worn, haggard-faced beings--six men, one woman, and
+two infant children. They were the unfortunate Bryant party--whose
+wonderful and daring voyage from Sydney to Timor in a wretched,
+ill-equipped boat, ranks second only to that of Bligh himself. For Will
+Bryant, an ex-smuggler who was leader, had heard of Bligh's voyage in
+the boat belonging to the _Bounty_; and fired with the desire to escape
+with his wife and children from the famine-stricken community on the
+shores of Port Jackson, he and his companions in servitude stole a small
+fishing-boat and boldly put to sea to face a journey of more that three
+thousand miles over an unknown and dangerous ocean. A few weeks after
+leaving Sydney they had sighted this little nook when seeking refuge
+from a fierce north-easterly gale, and here they remained for many days,
+so that the woman and children might gain strength and the seams of the
+leaking boat be payed with tallow--their only substitute for oakum.
+Then onward they sailed or rowed, for long, long weary weeks, landing
+here and there on the coast to seek for water and shell-fish, harried
+and chased by cannibal savages, suffering all the agonies that could be
+suffered on such a wild venture, until they reached Timor, only by a
+strange and unhappy fate to fall into the hands of the brutal and
+infamous Edwards of the _Pandora_ frigate, who with his wrecked ship's
+company, and the surviving and manacled mutineers of the _Bounty_, who
+had surrendered to him, soon afterwards appeared at the Dutch port.
+Bryant, the daring leader, was so fortunate as to die of fever, and so
+escaped the fate in store for his comrades. 'Tis a strange story indeed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the end of the point of brown, rugged rocks which form a natural
+breakwater to this tiny boat harbour, the water is deep, showing a pale
+transparent green at their base, and deep inpenetrable blue ten fathoms
+beyond. To-day, because it is mid-winter, and the wind blows from the
+west, the sea is clearer than ever, and far down below will be discerned
+lazily swimming to and fro great reddish-brown or bright blue groper,
+watching the dripping sides of the rock in hope that some of the active,
+gaily-hued crabs which scurry downwards as you approach may fall in--for
+the blue groper is a _gourmet_, disdaining to eat of his own tribe, and
+caring only for crabs or the larger and more luscious crayfish. Stand
+here when the tide is high and the surf is sweeping in creamy sheets
+over the lower ledges of rocks; and as the water pours off torrent-like
+from the surface and leaves them bare, you may oft behold a huge
+fish--aye, or two or three--lying kicking on its side with a young
+crayfish in its thick, fleshy jaws, calmly waiting for the next sea to
+set him afloat again. Brave fellows are these gropers--forty, fifty, up
+to seventy pounds sometimes, and dangerous fish to hook in such a place
+as this, where a false step may send a man headlong into the surf below
+with his line tangled round his feet or arms. But on such a morning as
+this one might fall overboard and come to no harm, for the sea is
+smooth, and the kelp sways but gently to the soft rise and fall of the
+water, and seldom in these cold days of June does Jack Shark cruise in
+under the lee of the rocks. It is in November, hot, sweltering November,
+when the clinking sand of the shining beach is burning to the booted
+foot, and the countless myriads of terrified sea salmon come swarming in
+over the bar on their way to spawn in the river beyond, that he and his
+fellows and the bony-snouted saw-fish rush to and fro in the shallow
+waters, driving their prey before them, and gorging as they drive, till
+the clear waters of the bar are turned into a bloodied froth. At such a
+time as this it might be bad to fall overboard, though some of the local
+youths give but little more heed to the tigers of the sea than they do
+to the accompanying drove of harmless porpoises, which join in the
+onslaught on the hapless salmon.
+
+A mile eastward from the shore there rises stark and clear a great
+dome-shaped rock, the haunt and resting-place of thousands of
+snow-white gulls and brown-plumaged boobies. The breeding-place of the
+former is within rifle-shot--over there on that long stretch of
+banked-up sand on the north side of the bar, where, amid the shelter of
+the coarse, tufted grass the delicate, graceful creatures will sit three
+months hence on their fragile white and purple-splashed eggs. The
+boobies are but visitors, for their breeding-places are on the bleak,
+savage islands far to the south, amid the snows and storms of black
+Antarctic seas. But here they dwell together, in unison with the gulls,
+and were the wind not westerly you could hear their shrill cries and
+hoarse croaking as they wheel and eddy and circle above the lonely rock,
+on the highest pinnacle of which a great fish-eagle, with neck thrown
+back upon his shoulders and eyes fixed eastward to the sun, stands
+oblivious of their clamour, as creatures beneath his notice.
+
+Once round the southern side of the Signal Hill the noise of the bar is
+lost. Between the hill and the next point--a wild, stern-looking
+precipice of black-trap rock--there lies a half a mile or more of
+shingly strand, just such as you would see at Pevensey Bay or Deal, but
+backed up at high-water mark with piles of drift timber--great dead
+trees that have floated from the far northern rivers, their mighty
+branches and netted roots bleached white by the sun and wind of many
+years, and smelling sweet of the salty sea air. Mingled with the lighter
+bits of driftwood and heaps of seaweed are the shells of hundreds of
+crayfish--some of the largest are newly cast up by the sea, and the
+carapace is yellow and blue; others are burnt red by exposure to the
+sun; while almost at every step you crush into the thin backs and
+armoured tails of young ones about a foot in length, the flesh of which,
+by some mysterious process of nature, has vanished, leaving the skin,
+muscles, and beautiful fan-like tail just as fresh as if the crustaceans
+were alive. Just here, out among those kelp-covered rocks, you may, on a
+moonlight night, catch as many crayfish as you wish--three of them will
+be as much as any one would care to carry a mile, for a large,
+full-grown "lobster," as they are called locally, will weigh a good ten
+pounds.
+
+Once round the precipice we come to a new phase of coastal scenery. From
+the high land above us green scrub-covered spur after spur shoots
+downward to the shore, enclosing numerous little beaches of coarse sand
+and many coloured spiral shells--"Reddies" we boys called them--with
+here and there a rare and beautiful cowrie of banded jet black and
+pearly white. The sea-wall of rock has here but few pools, being split
+up into long, deep, and narrow chasms, into which the gentle ocean swell
+comes with strange gurglings and hissings, and groan-like sounds, and
+tiny jets of spray spout up from hundreds of air-holes through the
+hollow crust of rock. Here for the first time since the town was left,
+are heard the cries of land birds; for in the wild apple and rugged
+honeysuckle trees which grow on the rich, red soil of the spurs they are
+there in plenty--crocketts, king parrots, leatherheads, "butcher" and
+"bell" birds, and the beautiful bronze-wing pigeon--while deep within
+the silent gullies you constantly hear the little black scrub wallabies
+leaping through the undergrowth and fallen leaves, to hide in still
+darker forest recesses above.
+
+There are snakes here, too. Everywhere their sinuous tracks are visible
+on the sand, criss-crossing with the more defined scratchy markings of
+those of iguanas. The latter we know come down to carry off any dead
+fish cast ashore by the waves, or to seize any live ones which may be
+imprisoned in a shallow pool; but what brings the deadly brown and black
+snakes down to the edge of _salt_ water at night time?
+
+Point after point, tiny bay after bay, and then we come to a wider
+expanse of clear, stoneless beach, at the farther end of which a huge
+boulder of jagged, yellow rock, covered on the summit with a thick
+mantle of a pale green, fleshly-leaved creeper, bearing a pink flower.
+It stands in a deep pool about a hundred yards in circumference, and as
+like as not we shall find the surface of the water covered by thousands
+of green-backed, red-billed garfish and silvery mullet, whose very
+numbers prevent them from escaping. Scores of them leap out upon the
+sand, and lie there with panting gill and flapping tail. It is a great
+place for us boys, for here at low tides in the winter we strip off, and
+with naked hands catch the mullet and gars and silvery-sided trumpeters,
+and throw them out on the beach, to be grilled later on over a fire of
+glowing honeysuckle cobs, and eaten without salt. What boy does care
+about such a thing as salt at such times, when his eye is bright and his
+skin glows with the flush of health, and the soft murmuring of the sea
+is mingling in his ears with the thrilling call of the birds, and the
+rustling hum of the bush; and the yellow sun shines down from a glorious
+sky of cloudless blue, and dries the sand upon his naked feet; and the
+very joy of being alive, and away from school, is happiness enough in
+itself!
+
+For here, by rock and pool on this lonely Austral beach, it is good and
+sweet for man or boy to be, and, if but in utter idleness, to watch and
+listen--and think.
+
+
+
+
+_Solepa_
+
+
+The last strokes of the bell for evening service had scarce died away
+when I heard a footstep on the pebbly path, and old Pakia, staff in hand
+and pipe dangling from his pendulous ear-lobe, walked quietly up the
+steps and sat down cross-legged on the verandah. All my own people had
+gone to church and the house was very quiet.
+
+"Good evening, Pakia," I said in English, "how are you, old man?"
+
+A smile lit up the brown, old, wrinkled face as he heard my voice--for I
+was lying down in the sitting-room, smoking my after-supper pipe--as he
+answered in the island dialect that he was well, but that his house was
+in darkness and he, being lonely, had come over to sit with me awhile.
+
+"That is well, Pakia, for I too am lonely, and who so good as thee to
+talk with when the mind is heavy and the days are long, and no sail
+cometh up from the sea-rim? Come, sit here within the doorway, for the
+night wind is chill; and fill thy pipe."
+
+He came inside as I rose and turned up the lamp so that its light shone
+full on his bald, bronzed head and deeply tatooed arms and shoulders.
+Laying down his polished staff of _temana_ wood, he came over to me,
+placed his hand on my arm, patted it gently, and then his kindly old
+eyes sought mine.
+
+"Be not dull of heart, _taka taina_.[1] A ship will soon come--it may be
+to-morrow; it must be soon; for twice have I heard the cocks crow at
+midnight since I was last here, three days ago. And when the cocks crow
+at night-time a ship is near."
+
+"May it be so, Pakia, for I am weary of waiting. Ten months have come
+and gone since I first put foot on this land of Nukufetau, and a ship
+was to have come here in four."
+
+He filled his pipe, then drawing a small mat near my lounge, he squatted
+on the floor, and we smoked in silence, listening to the gentle lapping
+of the lagoon waters upon the inner beach and the beating, never-ceasing
+hum of the surf on the reef beyond. Overhead the branches of the palms
+swayed and rustled to the night-breeze.
+
+Presently, as I turned to look seaward, I caught the old man's dark eyes
+fixed upon my face, and in them I read a sympathy that at that time and
+place was grateful to me.
+
+"Six months is long for one who waits, Pakia," I said. "I came here but
+to stay four months and trade for copra; then the ship was to call and
+take me to Ponape, in the far north-west. And Ponape is a great land to
+such a man as me."
+
+"_Etonu! Etonu!_ I know it. Thrice have I been there when I sailed in
+the whaleships. A great land truly, like the island called Juan
+Fernandez, of which I have told thee, with high mountains green to the
+summits with trees, and deep, dark valleys wherein the sound of the sea
+is never heard but when the surf beats hard upon the reef. Ah! a fine
+land--better than this poor _motu_, which is as but a ring of sand set
+in the midst of the deep sea. Would that I were young to go there with
+thee! Tell me, dost know the two small, high islands in the _ava_[2]
+which is called Jakoits? Hast seen the graves of two white men there?"
+
+"I know the islands well; but I have never seen the graves of any white
+men there. Who were they, and when did they die?"
+
+"Ah, I am a foolish old man. I forget how old I am. Perhaps, when thou
+wert a child in thy mother's arms, the graves stood up out of the
+greensward at the foot of the high cliff which faces to the south. Tell
+me, is there not a high wall of rock a little way back from the landing
+beach?... Aye!... that is the place ... and the bones of the men are
+there, though now great trees may grow over the place. They were both
+good men--good to look at, tall and strong; and they fought and died
+there just under the cliff. I saw them die, for I was there with the
+captain of my ship. We, and others with us, saw it all."
+
+"Who were they, Pakia, and how came they to fight?"
+
+"One was a trader, whose name was Preston; he lived on the mainland of
+Ponape, where he had a great house and oil store and many servants. The
+name of the other man was Frank. They fought because of a woman."
+
+"Tell me the story, Pakia. Thou hast seen many lands and many strange
+things. And when ye come and sit and talk to me the dulness goeth away
+from me and I no longer think of the ship; for of all the people on this
+_motu_, to thee and Temana my servant alone do I talk freely. And Temana
+is now at church."
+
+The old man chuckled. "Aye, he is at church because Malepa, his wife, is
+so jealous of him that she fears to leave him alone. Better would it
+please him to be sitting here with us."
+
+I drew the mat curtain across the sitting-room window so that we could
+not be seen by prying eyes, and put two cups, a gourd of water, and some
+brandy on the table. Except my own man, Temana, the rest of the natives
+were intensely jealous of the poor old ex-sailor and wanderer in many
+lands, and they very much resented his frequent visits to me--partly on
+account of the occasional glass of grog which I gave him, and partly
+because he was suspected of still being a _tagata po-uriuri, i.e._, a
+heathen. This, however, he vigorously denied, and though Mareko, the
+Samoan teacher, was a kind-hearted and tolerant man for a native
+minister, the deacons delighted in persecuting and harassing the ancient
+upon every possible opportunity, and upon one pretext or another had
+succeeded in robbing him of his land and dividing it among his
+relatives; so that now in his extreme old age he was dependent upon one
+of his daughters, a woman who herself must have been past sixty.
+
+I poured some brandy into the cups; we clicked them together and said,
+"May you be lucky" to each other. Then he told me of Solepa.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There were many whaleships came to anchor in the three harbours of
+Ponape in those days. They came there for wood and water and fresh
+provisions, before they sailed to the cold, icy seas of the south. I was
+then a boat-steerer in an English ship--a good and lucky ship with a
+good captain. When we came to Ponape we found there six other
+whaleships, all anchored close together under the shelter of the two
+islets. All the captains were friends, and the few white men who lived
+on shore were friends with them, and every night there was much singing
+and dancing on board the ships, for, as was the custom, every one on
+board had been given a Ponape girl for wife as long as his ship stayed
+there; and sometimes a ship would be there a long time--a month perhaps.
+
+"The trader who lived in the big house was one of the first to come on
+board our ship; for the captain and he were good friends. They talked
+together on the poop deck, and I heard the trader say that he had been
+away to Honolulu for nearly a year and had brought back with him a young
+wife.
+
+"'Good,' said my captain, 'to-night I shall come ashore and drink
+_manuia!_[3] to ye both.'
+
+"The trader was pleased, and said that some of the other captains could
+come also, and that he had sent a letter to the other trader, Frank, who
+lived on the other side of the island, bidding him to come and greet the
+new wife. At these words the face of Stacey--that was my captain's name,
+became dark, and he said--
+
+"'You are foolish. Such a man as he is, is better away from thy
+house--and thy wife. He is a _manaia_, an _ulavale_[4]. Take heed of my
+words and have no dealings with him.'
+
+"But the man Preston only laughed. He was a fool in this though he was
+so clever in many other things. He was a big man, broad in the shoulders
+with the bright eye and the merry laugh of a boy. He had been a sailor,
+but had wearied of the life, and so he bought land in Ponape and became
+a trader. He was a fair-dealing man with the people there, and so in
+three or four years he became rich, and bought more land and built a
+schooner which he sent away to far distant islands to trade for
+pearl-shell and _loli_ (beche-de-mer). Then it was that he went to
+Honolulu and came back with a wife.
+
+"That day ere it became dark I went on shore with my captain; some of
+the other captains went with us. The white man met them on the beach,
+surrounded by many of his servants, male and female. Some were of
+Ponape, some from Tahiti, some from Oahu, and some from the place which
+you call Savage Island and we call Niue. As soon as the captains had
+stepped out upon the beach and I had bidden the four sailors who were
+with me to push off to return to the ship, the trader, seeing the
+tatooing on my arms, gave a shout.
+
+"'Ho,' he cried, turning to my captain, 'whence comes that boat-steerer
+of thine? By the markings on his arms and chest he should be from the
+isles of the Tokelau.'
+
+"My captain laughed. 'He comes from near there. He is of Nukufetau.'
+
+"Then let him stay on shore to-night, for there are here with me a man
+and a woman from Nanomaga; they can talk together. And my wife Solepa,
+too, will be well pleased to see him, for her mother was a Samoan, and
+this man can talk to her in her mother's tongue.'
+
+"'So I too went up to the house with the white men, but would not enter
+with them, for I was stripped to the waist and could not go into the
+presence of the lady. Presently the man and woman from Nanomaga sought
+me out and embraced me and made much of me and took me into another part
+of the house, where I waited till one of my shipmates returned from the
+ship bringing my jumper and trousers of white duck and a new Panama hat.
+Ta|pa|! I was a fine-looking man in those days, and women looked at
+me from the corner of the eye. And now--look at me now! I am like a
+blind fish which is swept hither and thither by the current against the
+rocks and sandbanks. Give me some more grog, dear friend; when I talk of
+the days of my youth my belly yearns for it, and I am not ashamed to
+beg.
+
+"Presently, after I had dressed myself, I was taken by the Nanomea man
+into the big room where Solepa, the white man's wife, was sitting with
+the white men. She came to me and took my hand, and said to me in Samoan
+_'Talofa, Pakia, e ma|lolo| ea oe?'_[5] and my heart was glad; for
+it was long since I heard any one speak in a tongue which is akin to
+mine own.... Was she beautiful? you ask. Ta|pa|! All women are
+beautiful when they are young, and their eyes are full and clear and
+their voices are soft and their bosoms are round and smooth! All I can
+remember of her is that she was very young, with a white, fair skin, and
+dressed like the _papalagi_[6] women I have seen in Peretania and
+Ita|lia and in Chili and in Sydney.
+
+"As I stood before her, hat in hand and with my eyes looking downward,
+which is proper and correct for a modest man to do when a high lady
+speaks to him before many people, a white man who had been sitting at
+the far end of the room came over to me and said some words of greeting
+to me. This was Franka[7]--he whom my captain said was a _manaia_. He
+was better clothed than any other of the white men, and was proud and
+overbearing in his manner. He had brought with him more than a score of
+young Ponape men, all of whom carried rifles and had cutlasses strapped
+to their waists. This was done to show the people of Jakoits that he was
+as great a man as Preston, whom he hated, as you will see. But Preston
+had naught for him but good words, and when he saw the armed men he bade
+them welcome and set aside a house for them to sleep in, and his
+servants brought them many baskets of cooked food--taro and yams, and
+fish, turtle, and pork. All this I saw whilst I was in the big room.
+
+"After I had spoken with the lady Solepa I returned to where the man
+from Nanomaga and his wife were awaiting me. They pressed me to eat and
+drink, and by and by sent for a young girl to make kava. Ta|pa|!
+that kava of Ponape! It is not made there as it is in Samoa--where the
+young men and women chew the dried root and mix it in a wooden _tanoa_
+(bowl); there the green root is crushed up in a hollowed stone and but
+little water is added, so that it is strong, very strong, and one is
+soon made drunk.
+
+"The girl who made the kava for us was named Sipi. She had eyes like the
+stars when they are shining upon a deep mountain pool, and round her
+smooth forehead was bound a circlet of yellow pandanus leaf worked with
+beads of many colours and fringed with red parrakeet feathers; about her
+waist were two fine mats, and her bosom and hands were stained with
+turmeric. I sat and watched her beating the kava, and as her right arm
+rose and fell her short, black wavy hair danced about her cheeks and hid
+the red mouth and white teeth when she smiled at me. And she smiled at
+me very often, and the man and woman beside me laughed when they saw me
+regard her so intently, and asked me was it in my mind to have her for
+my wife.
+
+"I did not answer at once, for I knew that if I ran away from the ship
+for the sake of this girl I would be doing a foolish thing, for I had
+money coming to me when the ship was _oti folau_ (paid off). But, as I
+pondered, the girl bent forward and again her eyes smiled at me through
+her hair; and then it was I saw that on her head there was a narrow
+shaven strip from the crown backward. Now, in Tokelau, this fashion is
+called _tu tagita_, and showeth that a girl is in her virginity. When I
+saw this I was pleased, but to make sure I said to my friends, 'Her hair
+is _tu tagita_. Is she a virgin?'
+
+"The woman of Nanomaga laughed loudly at this and pinched my hand, then
+she translated my words to the girl who looked into my face and laughed
+too, shaking her head as she put one hand over her eyes--
+
+"'Nay, nay, O stranger,' she said, 'I am no virgin; neither am I a
+harlot. I am respectable, and my father and mother have land. I do not
+go to the ships.' Then she tossed her hair back from her face and began
+to beat the kava again.
+
+"Now, this girl pleased me greatly, for there were no twists in her
+tongue; so, when the kava-drinking was finished I made her sit beside
+me, and the Nanomaga woman told her I would run away from the ship if
+she would be my wife. She put her face to my shoulder, and then took
+the circlet from her forehead and bound it round my bared arm, and I
+gave her a silver ring which I wore on my little finger. Then, together
+with the Nanomaga man and his wife, we made our plans.... Ah! she was a
+fine girl. For nearly a year was she wife to me until she sickened and
+died of the _meisake elo_[8] which was brought to Ponape by the
+missionary ship from Honolulu.
+
+"So the girl and I made our plans, and my friends promised to hide me
+when the time came for me to run away. We sat long into the night, and I
+heard much of the man called Franka and of the jealousy he bore to
+Preston. He was jealous of him because of two reasons; one was that he
+possessed such a fine house and so much land and a schooner, and the
+other was that the people of Jakoits paid him the same respect as they
+paid one of their high chiefs. So that was why Franka hated him. His
+heart was full of hatred, and sometimes when he was drunk in his own
+house at Ro|an Kiti he would boast to the natives that he would one
+day show them that he was a better man than Preston. Sometimes his
+drunken boastings were brought to the ears of Preston, who only laughed
+and took no heed, and always gave him the good word when they met, which
+was but seldom, for Jakoits and Kiti are far apart, and there was bad
+blood between the people of the two places. And then--so the girl Sipi
+afterwards told me--Franka was a lover of grog and a stealer of women,
+and kept a noisy house and made much trouble, and so Preston went not
+near him, for he was a quiet man and no drinker, and hated dissension.
+And, besides this, Franka took part in the wars of the Kiti people, and
+went about with a following of armed men, and such money as he made in
+trading he spent in muskets and powder and ball; for all this Preston
+had no liking, and one day he said to Franka, 'Be warned, this fighting
+and slaying is wrong; it is not correct for a white man to enter into
+these wars; you are doing wrong, and some day you will be killed.' Now
+these were good words, but of what use are good words to an evil heart?
+
+"So we pair sat talking and smoking, and the girl Sipi made us more
+kava, and then again sat by my side and leant her face against my
+shoulder, and presently we heard the sounds of music and singing from
+the big house. We went outside to see and listen, and saw that Preston
+was playing on a _pese laakau_[9] and Solepa and the captain of my ship
+were dancing together--like as white people dance--and two of the other
+captains were also dancing in the same fashion. All round the room were
+seated many of the high chiefs of Ponape with their wives, dressed very
+finely, and at one end of the room stood a long table covered with a
+white cloth, on which was laid food of all kinds and wine and grog to
+drink--just as you would see in your own country when a rich man gives a
+feast. Presently as we looked, we saw Franka walk into the room from a
+side door and look about. His face was flushed, and he staggered
+slightly in his steps. He went over to the table and poured out some
+grog, and then beckoned to Preston to come and drink with him, but
+Preston smiled and shook his head. How could he go when he was making
+the music? Then Franka struck his clenched fist on the table in anger,
+and went over to Preston, just as the dancers had stopped.
+
+"'Why will ye not drink with me?' he said in a loud voice so that all
+heard him. 'Art thou too great a man to drink with me again?'
+
+"'Nay,' answered the other jestingly and taking no heed of Franka's rude
+voice and angry eyes, 'not so great that I cannot drink with all my
+friends tonight, be they white or brown,' and so saying he bade every
+one in the room come to the great table with him and drink _manuia_ to
+him and his young wife.
+
+"So the nine white men--Preston, and Franka, and the seven whaleship
+captains, and Nanakin, the head chief of Ponape, and many other lesser
+chiefs, all gathered together around the table and filled their glasses
+and drank _manuia_ to the bride, who sat on a chair in the centre of the
+room surrounded by the chiefs' wives, and smiled and bowed when my
+captain called her name and raised his glass towards her. Then after
+this he again took up the _pese laakau_ and began to play, and my
+captain and Solepa danced again. Suddenly Franka pushed his way through
+the others and rudely placed his hand on her arm.
+
+"'Come,' he said, 'leave this fellow and dance with me.'
+
+"She cried out in terror, and then silence fell upon all as my captain
+withdrew his right arm from her waist and struck Franka on the mouth; it
+was a strong blow, and Franka staggered backwards and then fell near to
+the open door. As he rose to his feet again my captain came up to him
+and bade him leave quickly. 'We want no drunken bullies here,' he said,
+and at that moment Franka drew a pistol and pointed it at his chest. I
+leapt upon him and as we struggled together the pistol went off, but the
+bullet hurt no one.
+
+"Then there was a great commotion, and my captain and Preston ran to my
+aid and seized Franka. They dragged him out of the room, and with words
+of scorn and contempt threw him out amongst his own people who were
+gathered together outside the house, with their muskets in their hands.
+But already Nanakin and his chiefs had summoned their fighting men; they
+came running towards us from all directions, and surrounding Franka and
+his men, drove them away and bade them beware of ever returning to
+Jakoits.
+
+"When they had gone, my captain called me to him, and, turning to the
+other white men, said, 'This man hath saved my life. He hath a brave
+heart. I shall do much for him in the time to come.' Then he and the
+others all shook my hand and praised me, and I was silent and said
+nothing, for I was ashamed to think I was about to run away from such a
+good captain.
+
+"In the morning we went back to the ship, and the boats were then sent
+away to fill and bring off casks of water. Every time my boat went I
+took something with me; tobacco and clothing and other things which I
+had in my sea chest. Sipi and some other girls met us at the watering
+place, and they took these from me and put them in a place of safety.
+That afternoon as the boats were about to leave the shore for the last
+time, towing the casks, I slipped into the forest which grew very
+densely on both sides of the little river, and ran till I came to the
+spot where Sipi was awaiting me. Then together we went inland towards
+the mountains and kept on walking till nightfall. That night we slept in
+the forest; we were afraid to make a fire lest it should be seen by some
+of Nanakin's people and betray us, for I knew that my captain would
+cause a great search to be made for me. When dawn came we again set out
+and went on steadily till we came to the summit of the range of
+mountains which divides the island. There was a clear space on the side
+of the mountain; a great village had once stood there, so Sipi told me,
+but all those who had dwelt there had long since died, and their ghosts
+could be heard flitting to and fro at night time. Far below us we could
+see the blue sea, and the long waving line of reef with the surf beating
+upon it, and within, anchored in the green water, were the seven ships
+and Preston's schooner.
+
+"All that day and the next the girl and I worked at building a little
+house for us to live in until the ships had gone. We had no fear of any
+one seeking us out in that place, for it had a bad name and none but
+travelling parties from Ro|an Kiti ever passed there. Sipi had brought
+with her a basket of cooked food; in the deserted plantations we found
+plenty of bananas and yams, and in the stream at the foot of the valley
+we caught many small fish. Four days went by, and then one morning we
+saw the ships set their sails and go to sea. We watched them till they
+touched the sky rim and disappeared; then we went back to Jakoits.
+
+"The white man and Solepa were sitting under the shade of a tree in
+front of their house. I went boldly up to him and asked him to give me
+work to do. At first he was angry, for he and my captain were great
+friends, and said he would have naught to do with me. Why did I run away
+from such a good man and such a good ship? There were too many men like
+me, he said, in Ponape, who had run away so that they might do naught
+but wander from village to village and eat and drink and sleep. Then
+again he asked why I had run away.
+
+"'Because of her,' I said, pointing to the girl Sipi, who was sitting at
+the gate with her face covered with the corner of her mat. 'But I am no
+_tafao vale_.[10] I am a true man. Give me work on thy ship.'
+
+"He thought a little while, then he and Solepa talked together, and
+Solepa bade Sipi come near so that she might talk to her. Presently he
+said to me that I had done a foolish thing to run away for the sake of
+the girl when I had money coming to me and when the captain's heart was
+filled with friendship towards me for turning aside Franka's pistol.
+
+"I bent my head, for I was ashamed. Then I said, 'I care not for the
+money I have lost, but I am eaten up with shame for running away, for my
+captain was a good captain to me.'
+
+"This pleased him, for he smiled and said, 'I will try thee. I will make
+thee boatswain of the schooner, and this girl here shall be servant to
+my wife.'
+
+"So Sipi became servant to Solepa, and I was sent on board the schooner
+to help prepare her for sea. My new captain gave us a house to live in,
+and every night I came on shore. Ah, those were brave times, and Preston
+made much of me when he found that I was a true man and did my work
+well, and would stand no saucy words nor black looks from those of the
+schooner's crew who thought that the boatswain should be a white man.
+
+"Ten days after the whaleships had sailed, the schooner was ready for
+sea. We were to sail to the westward isles to trade for oil and
+tortoiseshell, and then go to China, where Preston thought to sell his
+cargo. On the eve of the day on which we were to leave, the mate, who
+was an old and stupid Siamani,[11] went ashore to my master's house, and
+I was left in charge of the schooner. Sipi, my wife, was with me, and we
+sat together in the stern of the ship, smoking our _sului_ (cigarettes)
+and talking of the time when I should return and buy a piece of land
+from her father's people, on which I should build a new house. There
+were six native sailors on board, and these, as the night drew on,
+spread their mats on the fore deck and went to sleep. Then Sipi and I
+went into the cabin, which was on deck, and we too slept.
+
+"How long we had slumbered I cannot tell, but suddenly we were aroused
+by the sound of a great clamour on deck and the groans and cries of
+dying men, and then ere we were well awakened the cabin door was opened
+and Solepa was thrust inside. Then the door was quickly closed and
+fastened on the outside, and I heard Franka's voice calling out orders
+to hoist sails and slip the cable.
+
+"There was a lamp burning dimly in the cabin, and Sipi and I ran to the
+aid of Solepa, who lay prone upon the floor as if dead. Her dress was
+torn, and her hands and arms were scratched and bleeding, so that Sipi
+wept as she leant over her and put water to her lips. In a little while
+she opened her eyes, and when she saw us a great sob broke from her
+bosom and she caught my hand in hers and tried to speak.
+
+"Now, grog is a good thing. It is good for a weak, panting woman when
+her strength is gone and her soul is terrified, and it is good for an
+old man who is despised by his relations because he is bitten with
+poverty. There was grog in a wicker jar in the cabin. I gave her some in
+a glass, and then as the dog Franka, whose soul and body are now in
+hell, was getting the schooner under way, she told me that while she and
+Preston were asleep the house was surrounded by a hundred or more of
+men from Ro|an Kiti, led by Franka. They burst in suddenly, and Franka
+and some others rushed into their sleeping-room and she was torn away
+from her husband and carried down to the beach.
+
+"'Is thy husband dead?' I asked.
+
+"'I cannot tell,' she said in a weak voice. 'I heard some shots fired
+and saw him struggling with Franka's men. That is all I know. If he is
+dead then shall I die too. Give me a knife, so that I may die.'
+
+"As she spoke the schooner began to move, and again we heard Franka's
+voice calling out in English to some one to go forward and con the ship
+whilst he steered, for the night was dark and he, clever stealer of
+women as he was, did not know the passage out through the reef, and
+trusted to those with him who knew but little more. Then something came
+into my mind, and I took Solepa's hand in mine.
+
+"'I will save thee from this pig Franka,' I said quickly, 'he shall
+never take thee away. Sit ye here with Sipi, and when ye hear the
+schooner strike, spring ye both into the sea and swim towards the two
+islands which are near.'
+
+"In the centre of the deck cabin was a hatch which led into the hold.
+There was no deck between, for the vessel was but small. I took my knife
+from the sheath and then lifted the hatch, descended, and crawled
+forward in the darkness to the fore hatch, up which I crept very
+carefully, for I had much in my mind. I saw a man standing up, holding
+on to the fore stay. He was calling out to Franka every now and then,
+telling him how to steer. I sprang up behind him, and as I drove my
+knife into his back with my left hand, I struck him with my right on his
+neck and he fell overboard. He was a white man, I think for when my
+knife went into his back he called out 'Oh Christ!' But then many native
+men who have mixed with white people call out 'Oh, Christ,' just like
+white men when they are drunk. Anyway, it does not matter now.
+
+"But as I struck my knife into him, I called out in English to put the
+helm hard down, for I saw that the schooner was very near the reef on
+the starboard hand. Franka, who was at the wheel, at once obeyed and was
+fooled, for the schooner, which was now leaping and singing to the
+strong night wind from the mountains smote suddenly upon the coral reef
+with a noise like the felling of a great forest tree, and began to grind
+and tear her timbers.
+
+"Almost as she struck Solepa and Sipi stood by me, and together we
+sprang overboard into the white surf ... Give me some more grog, dear
+friend of my heart. I am no boaster, nor am I a liar; but when I think
+of that swim to the shore through the rolling seas with those two women,
+my belly cleaves to my backbone and I become faint.... For the current
+was against us, and neither Sipi nor Solepa were good swimmers, and many
+times had we to clutch hold of the jagged coral, which tore our skins so
+that our blood ran out freely, and had the sharks come to us then I
+would not be here with thee to-night drinking this, thy good sweet grog
+which thou givest me out of thy kind heart. Ta|pa|! When I look
+into thy face and see thy kind eyes, I am young again. I love thee, not
+alone because thou hast been kind to me in my poverty and paid the fines
+of my granddaughter when she hath committed adultery with the young men
+of the village, but because thou hast seen many lands and have upheld me
+before the teacher, who is a circumcised but yet untatooed dog of a
+Samoan. A man who is not tatooed is no better than a woman. He is a male
+harlot and should be despised. He is only fit to associate with women,
+and has no right to beget children....
+
+"We three swam to the shore, and when the dawn came we saw that the
+schooner stood high and dry on the reef and that Franka and his men were
+trying to float her by throwing overboard the iron ballast and putting a
+kedge anchor out upon the lee side of the reef. And at the same time we
+saw three boats put off from the mainland. These boats were all painted
+white, and when I saw them I said to Solepa, 'Be of good heart. Thy
+husband is not dead, for here are three of his boats coming. He is not
+dead. He is coming to seek thee.'"
+
+"The three boats came quickly towards the schooner, but ere they reached
+her Franka and those with him got into the boats in which they had
+boarded the vessel, and then we saw smoke arise from the bow and
+stern.... They had set fire to the ship. They were cowards. Fire is a
+great help to cowards, because in the glare and dazzling light of
+burning houses or ships, when the thunder of cannons and the rattle of
+rifles is heard, they can run about and kill people.... I have seen
+these things done in Chili.... I have seen men who would not stand and
+fight on board ship run away on shore and slay women and children in
+their fury and cowardice. No, they were not Englishmen; they were
+Spaniolas. But the officers were Englishmen and Germans. _They_ did not
+run away, they were killed. Brave men get killed and cowards live. I am
+no coward though I am still alive. It is quite proper that I should
+live, for I never ran away when there was fighting to be done. I have
+only been a fool because of my love for women. No one could say I was a
+coward, and no one can say I am a fool, because I am too old now to be a
+fool.
+
+"As Franka and those with him left the burning schooner and rowed
+towards the islands, the three boats from the shore changed their course
+and followed him. Franka and his men were the first to reach the land,
+and they quickly ran up the beach and crouched behind the bushes which
+grew at high-water mark. They all had guns, and Sipi and Solepa and I
+saw them waiting to shoot. We were hiding amid the roots of a great
+banyan tree, and could see well. As the boats drew near Solepa watched
+them eagerly, and then began to weep and laugh at the same time when she
+saw her husband Preston was steering the one which led. She was a good
+woman. She loved her husband. I was pleased with her, and told her to be
+of good cheer, for I was sure that Preston and his people would kill
+Franka and those with him, for as they rowed they made no noise. No one
+shouted nor challenged; they came on and on, and the white man Preston
+stood up with the steer oar in his hand, and his face was as a stone in
+which was set eyes of fire. When his boat was within twenty fathoms of
+the beach the rowers ceased, and he held up his hand to those who
+awaited his coming.
+
+"'Listen to me, men of Ro|an Kiti. We are as three to one of ye, and
+ye are caught in a trap. Death is in my mouth if I speak the word. Tell
+me, is my wife Solepa alive?'
+
+"No one answered, but suddenly Franka stepped out from behind the bushes
+and pointed his rifle at him, and was about to pull the trigger when a
+young man of his party who was of good heart seized him by the arm, and
+cried out 'twas a coward's act; then two or three followed him, and
+together they bore Franka down upon the sand; and one of them cried out
+to Preston--
+
+"'This is a wrong business. We were led astray by this man. We are no
+cowards, and have no ill-will to thee. Thy wife is alive. She swam
+ashore with two others when the ship struck. Are we dead men?'
+
+"Then, ere Preston could answer, Solepa leapt out from beneath the
+banyan tree and ran through the men of Ro|an Kiti towards the beach,
+and cried--
+
+"'Oh, my husband, for the love of God let no blood be shed! I am well
+and unharmed. Spare these people and spare even this man Franka, for he
+is mad!'
+
+"Then Preston leapt out of the boat and put his arms around her waist
+and kissed her, and then put her aside, and called to every one around
+him--
+
+"'These are my words,' he said. 'I am a man of peace, but this man
+Franka is a robber and a dog, and hath stolen upon me in the night and
+slain my people, and his hands are reddened with blood. And he hath put
+foul dishonour on me by stealing Solepa my wife, and carrying her away
+from my house as if she were a slave or a harlot. And there is no room
+here for such a man to live unless he be a better man than I. But I am
+no murderer. So stand aside all! Let him rise and rest awhile, and then
+shall we two fight, man to man. Either he or I must die.'
+
+"Then many men of both sides came to him and said, 'Let this thing be
+finished. You are a strong man. Take this robber and slay him as you
+would slay a pig.' But he put them aside, and said he would fight him
+man to man, as Englishmen fought.
+
+"So when Franka was rested two cutlasses were brought, and the two men
+stood face to face on the sand. I kept close to Franka, for I meant to
+stab him if I could, but Preston angrily bade me stand back. Then the
+two crossed their swords together and began to fight. It was a great
+fight, but it did not last long, for Preston soon ran his sword through
+Franka's chest. I saw it come out through his back. But as he fell and
+Preston bent over him he thrust his cutlass into Preston's stomach and
+worked it to and fro. Then Preston fell on him, and they died together.
+
+"There was no more bloodshed. Solepa and Sipi and I dressed the dead man
+in his best clothes, and the Ro|an Kiti men dressed Franka in his
+best clothes, and a great funeral feast was made, and we buried them
+together on the little island. And Solepa went back again to Honolulu in
+a whaleship. She was young and fair, and should have soon found another
+husband. I do not know. But Sipi was a fine wife to me."
+
+
+
+
+_The Fisher Folk of Nukufetau_
+
+Early one morning, about a week after I had settled down on Nukufetau as
+a trader, I opened my chest of fishing-gear and began to overhaul it. In
+a few minutes I was surrounded by an eager and interested group of
+natives, who examined everything with the greatest curiosity.
+
+Now for the preceding twelve months I had been living on the little
+island of Nanomaga, a day's sail from Nukufetau; and between Nanomaga
+and Nukufetau there was a great bitterness of long standing--the
+Nanomagans claimed to be the most daring canoe-men and expert fishermen
+in all the eight isles of the Ellice Group, and the people of Nukufetau
+resented the claim strongly. The feeling had been accentuated by my good
+friend the Samoan teacher on Nanomaga, himself an ardent fisherman,
+writing to his brother minister on Nukufetau and informing him that
+although I was not a high-class Christian I was all right in all other
+respects, and a good fisherman--"all that he did not know we have taught
+him, therefore," he added slyly, "let your young men watch him so that
+they may learn how to fish in deep and rough water, such as ours."
+These remarks were of course duly made public, and caused much
+indignation, neither the minister nor his flock liking the gibe about
+the deep, rough water; also the insinuation that anything about fishing
+was to be learnt from the new white man was annoying and uncalled for.
+
+I must here mention that the natives of De Peyster's Island (Nukufetau)
+caught all the fish they wanted in the smooth and spacious waters of the
+lagoon, and were not fond of venturing outside the barrier reef, except
+during the bonito season, or when the sea was very calm at night, to
+catch flying-fish. Then, too, the currents outside the reef were swift
+and dangerous, and the canoes had either to be carried a long distance
+over the coral or paddled a couple of miles across the lagoon to the
+ship passage before the open sea was gained. Hudson's Island
+(Nanomaga)--a tiny spot less than four miles in circumference--had no
+lagoon, and all fishing was done in the deep water of the ocean. The
+natives were used to launching their canoes, year in and year out, to
+face the wildest surf, and were, in consequence, wonderfully expert, and
+in the history of the island there is only one instance of a man having
+been drowned. The De Peyster people, by reason of the advantage of their
+placid lagoon, had no reason to risk their lives in the surf in this
+manner, and so, naturally enough, they were not nearly as skilful in the
+management of their frail canoes when they had to face a sweeping sea on
+the outer or ocean reef.
+
+Just as I was placing some coils of heavy, deep-sea lines upon the
+matted floor, Mareko the native teacher, fat, jovial, and
+bubbling-voiced, entered in a great hurry, and hardly giving himself
+time to shake hands with me, announced in a tone of triumph, that a body
+of _atuli_ (baby bonito) had just entered the passage and were making
+their way up the lagoon.
+
+In less than ten seconds every man, woman, and child on the island,
+except the teacher and myself, were agog with excitement and bawling and
+shouting as they rushed to the beach to launch and man the canoes, the
+advent of the _atuli_ having been expected for some days. In nearly all
+the equatorial islands of the Pacific these beautiful little fish make
+their appearance every year almost to a day, with unvarying regularity.
+They remain in the smooth waters of lagoons for about two weeks,
+swimming about in incredible numbers, and apparently so terrified of
+their many enemies in their own element, and the savage, keen-eyed
+frigate birds which constantly assail them from above, that they
+sometimes crowd into small pools on the inner reef, and when the tide is
+low, seek to hide themselves by lying in thick masses under the
+overhanging ledges of coral rock. Simultaneously--or at least within a
+day or two at most--the swarming millions of _atuli_ are followed into
+the lagoons by the _gatala_--a large black and grey rock-cod (much
+esteemed by the natives for the delicacy of its flavour) and great
+numbers of enormous eels. At other times of the year both the _gatala_
+and the eels are never or but rarely seen inside the lagoons, but are
+occasionally caught outside the reef at a good depth--forty to sixty
+fathoms. As soon, however, as the young bonito appear, both eels and
+rock-cod change their normal habits, and entering the lagoons through
+the passages thereto, they take up their quarters in the deeper
+parts--places which are fringed by a labyrinthine border of coral
+forest, and are at most ten fathoms deep. Here, when the _atuli_ are
+covering the surface above, the eels and rock-cod actually rise to the
+surface and play havoc among them, especially during moonlight nights,
+and in the daytime both rock-cod and eels may be seen pursuing their
+hapless prey in the very shallowest water, amidst the little pools and
+runnels of the coral reef. It is at this time that the natives of
+Nukufetau and some other islands have some glorious sport, for in
+addition to the huge eels and rock-cod many other deep-sea fish flock
+into the shallower lagoon waters--all in pursuit of the _atuli_--and all
+eager to take the hook.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As soon as the natives had left the house, Mareko turned to me with a
+beaming smile. "Let them go on first and net some _atuli_ for us for
+bait," he said, "you and I shall follow in my own canoe and fish for
+_gatala_. It will be a great thing for one of us to catch the first
+_gatala_ of the season. Yesterday, when I was over there," pointing to
+two tiny islets within the lagoon, "I saw some _gatala_. The natives
+laugh at me and say I am mistaken--that because the _atuli_ had not come
+there could be no _gatala_. Now, _I_ think that the big fish came in
+some days ago, but the strong wind and current kept the _atuli_ outside
+till now. Come."
+
+I needed no pressing. In five minutes I had my basket of lines (of white
+American cotton) ready, and joined Mareko. His canoe (the best on the
+island, of course) was already in the water and manned by his two sons,
+boys of eight and twelve respectively. I sat for'ard, the two youngsters
+amidships, the father took the post of honour as _tautai_ or steersman,
+and with a chuckle of satisfaction from the boys, off we went in the
+wake of about thirty other canoes.
+
+Oh, the delight of urging a light canoe over the glassy water of an
+island lagoon, and watching the changing colours and strange, grotesque
+shapes of the coral trees and plants of the garden beneath as they
+vanish swiftly astern, and the quick _chip, chip_ of the flashing
+paddles sends the whirling, noisy eddies to right and left, and frights
+the lazy, many-hued rock-fish into the darker depths beneath! On, on,
+till the half mile or more of shallow water which covers the inner reef
+is passed, and then suddenly you shoot over the top of the submarine
+wall, into deepest, loveliest blue, full thirty fathoms deep, and as
+calm and quiet as an infant sleeping on its mother's bosom, though
+perhaps not a quarter of a mile away on either hand the long rollers of
+the Pacific are bellowing and thundering on the grim black shelves of
+the weather coast.
+
+So it was on this morning, but with added delights and beauties; as
+instead of striking straight across the lagoon to our rendezvous we had
+to skirt the beaches of a chain of thickly wooded islets, which gave
+forth a sweet smell, mingled with the odours of _nono_ blossoms; for
+during the night rain had fallen after a long month of dry weather, and
+Nature was breathing with joy. High overhead there floated some
+snow-white tropic birds--those gentle, ethereal creatures which, to the
+toil-spent seaman who watches their mysterious poise in illimitable
+space, seem to denote the greater Mystery and Rest that lieth beyond all
+things; and lower down, and sweeping swiftly to and fro with steady,
+outspread wing and long, forked tail, the fierce-eyed, savage frigate
+birds scanned the surface of the water in search of prey, and then
+finding it not, rose without apparent motion to the cloudless canopy of
+blue and became as but tiny black specks--and then, _swish_! and the
+tiny black specks which but a minute ago were high in heaven are
+flashing by your cheeks with a weird, whistling sound like winged
+spectres. You look for them. They are gone. Already they are a thousand
+feet overhead. Five of them. And all five are as motionless as if they,
+with their wide, outspread wings, had never moved from their present
+position for a thousand years.
+
+"Chip, chip," and "chunk, chunk," go our paddles as we now head eastward
+towards the rising sun in whose resplendent rays the tufted palms of the
+two islets stand clearly out, silhouetted against the sea rim beyond.
+Now and again we hear, as from a long, long distance, the echoes of the
+voices of the people in the canoes ahead; a soft white mist began to
+gather over and then ascend from the water, and as we drew near the
+islets the occasional thunder of the serf on Motuluga Reef we heard
+awhile ago changed into a monotonous droning hum.
+
+"_Aue_!" said Mareko the _tautai_, with a laugh, as he ceased paddling
+and laid his paddle athwartships, "'tis like to be a hot day and calm.
+So much the better for our fishing, for the water will be very clear.
+Boy, give me a coconut to drink."
+
+"Take some whisky with it, Mareko," I said, taking a flask out of my
+basket.
+
+"_Isa_! Shame upon you! How can you say such a thing to me, a minister!"
+And then he added, with a reproachful look, "and my children here, too."
+He would have winked, but he dared not do so, for one of his boys had
+turned his face aft and was facing him. I, however, made him a hurried
+gesture which he quite understood. Good old Mareko! He was an honest,
+generous-hearted, broad-minded fellow, but terribly afraid of his
+tyrannical deacons, who objected to him smoking even in the seclusion of
+his own curatage, and otherwise bullied and worried him into behaving
+exactly as they thought he should.
+
+By the time we reached the islets the _atuli_ catching had begun, and
+more than a hundred natives were encircling a considerable area of water
+with finely-meshed nets and driving the fish shoreward upon a small
+sandy beach, where they were scooped up in gleaming masses of shining
+blue and silver by a number of women and children, who tumbled over and
+pushed each other aside amidst much laughter and merriment.
+
+On the larger of the two islets were a few thatched huts with open
+sides. One of these was reserved for the missionary and the white man,
+and hauling our canoe up on the beach at the invitation of the people,
+we sat down under a shed whilst the women grilled us some of the
+freshly-caught fish. This took barely over ten minutes, as fires had
+already been lighted by the children. The absence of bread was made up
+for by the flesh of half-grown coconuts and cooked _puraka_--gigantic
+species of taro which thrives well in the sandy soil of the Equatorial
+islands of the Pacific. Just as we had finished eating and were
+preparing our lines we heard loud cries from the natives who were still
+engaged among the _atuli_, and three or four of them seizing spears
+began chasing what were evidently some large fish. Presently one of them
+darted his weapon, and then gave a loud cry of triumph, as he leapt into
+the water and dragged out a large salmon-like fish called "utu", which
+was at once brought ashore for my inspection. The man who had struck
+it--an active, wiry old fellow named Viliamu (William) was panting with
+excitement. Some large _gatala_, he said, had just made their appearance
+with the _utu_ and were pursuing the small fish; therefore would we
+please hurry forward with our preparations. Then the leader of the
+entire party stood up and bellowed out in bull-like tones his
+instructions. The canoes were all to start together, and when the ground
+was reached all lines were to be lowered simultaneously; there was to be
+no crowding. The white man and missionary, however, if they wished,
+could start first and make a choice of position.
+
+"No, no," I said, "let us all start fair."
+
+This was greeted with a chorus of approval, and then leaving the women
+and children to attend to the camp, we hurried back to the canoes. Just
+as we were leaving the hut I had a look at the _utu_--a fish I had never
+before seen. It was about three feet in length, and only for its head
+(which was coarse and clumsy) much like a heavy salmon. The back was
+covered with light green scales, the sides and belly a pure silver, and
+the fins and tail tipped with yellow. It weighed about 20 lbs., and
+presented a very handsome appearance.
+
+The fishing-ground to which we were now paddling was not half a mile
+from the islets, and lay between them and the outer reef which formed
+its northern boundary. It consisted of a series of deep channels or
+connected pools running or situated amidst a network of minor reefs, the
+surfaces of which were, for the most part, bare at low water. Generally
+the depth was from eight to ten fathoms; in places, however, it was much
+deeper, and I subsequently found that there were spots whereon I could
+stand (on the coral ledge) and drop my line into chasms of thirty-two or
+thirty-three fathoms. Here the water was almost as blue to the eye as
+the ocean, and here the very largest fish resorted--such as the _pura_,
+a species of rock-cod, and a blue-scaled groper, the native name of
+which I cannot now recall.
+
+It must have been nearly ten o'clock when the canoes were all in
+position, and the word was given to let go lines. The particular spot in
+which we were congregated was about three acres in extent and about
+seven fathoms in depth, with water as clear as crystal; and even the
+dullest eye could discern the smallest pebble or piece of broken coral
+lying upon the bottom, which was generally composed of patches of coarse
+sand surrounded by an interlacing fringe of growing coral, or white,
+blue, or yellow boulders. A glance over the side showed us that the
+_gatala_ had arrived; we could see numbers of them swimming lazily to
+and fro beneath, awaiting the flowing tide which would soon cover the
+lagoon from one shore to the other with swarms of young bonito, as they
+swam about in search of such places as that in which we were now about
+to begin fishing.
+
+Each man had baited his hook with the third of an _atuli_--at this stage
+of their life about four inches long and exactly the colour and shape of
+a young mackerel--and within five minutes after "_Tu'u tau kafa_!"
+("Let go lines!") had been called out several of the canoes around our
+own began to pull up fish--four to six pounders. I was fishing with a
+white cotton line, with two hooks, and Mareko with the usual native
+gear--a hand-made line of hibiscus bark with a barbless hook made from a
+long wire nail, with its point ground fine and well-curved inwards. We
+both struck fish at the same moment, and I knew by the zigzag pull that
+I had two. Up they came together--three spotted beauties about eighteen
+inches in length and weighing over 5 lbs. each. Then I found the
+advantage of the native style of hook; Mareko simply put his left thumb
+and forefinger into the fish's eye, had his hook free in a moment, had
+baited, lowered again and was pulling up another before I had succeeded
+in freeing even my first hook which was firmly fixed in the fish's
+gullet, out of sight. I soon put myself on a more even footing by
+cutting off the small one and a half inch hooks I had been using and
+bending on two thick and long-shanked four inchers. These answered
+beautifully, as although the barbs caused me some trouble, their stout
+shanks afforded a good grip and leverage when extracting them from the
+hard and keen-toothed jaws of the struggling fish. Then, too, I had
+another advantage over my companions; I was wearing a pair of seaboots
+which effectually protected my feet from either the terrible fins or the
+teeth of the fish in the bottom of the canoe.
+
+I had caught my eighth fish, when an outcry came from a canoe near us,
+as a young man who was seated on the for'ard thwart rose to his feet and
+began hauling in his line, which was standing straight up and down, taut
+as an iron bar, the canoe meanwhile spinning round and round although
+the steersman used all his efforts to keep her steady.
+
+"What is it, Tuluia?" called out fifty voices at once. "A shark?"
+
+"My mother's bones!" said old Viliamu with a laugh of contempt. "'Tis an
+eel, and Tuluia, who was asleep, has let it twist its tail around a
+piece of coral. May he lose it for his stupidity."
+
+We all ceased fishing to watch, and half a dozen men began jeering at
+the lad, who was too excited to heed them. Old Viliamu, who was in the
+next canoe, looked down, and then cried out that he could see the eel,
+which had taken several turns of its body around a thick branch of
+growing coral.
+
+"His head is up," he called out to the youth, "but you cannot move him,
+he has too many turns in and out among the coral." Then paddling up
+alongside he again looked at the struggling creature, then felt the line
+which was vibrating with the tension. Stepping out of his own craft into
+that of the young man, the line was placed in his hands without an inch
+of it being payed out, for once one of these giant eels can get his head
+down he will so quickly twine the line in and out among the rugged coral
+that it is soon chafed through, if of ordinary thickness. But the
+ancient knew his work well, as we were soon to see. Taking a turn of the
+line well up on his forearm and grasping it with his right a yard lower
+down, he waited for a second or two, then suddenly bent his body till
+his face nearly touched the water, then he sprang erect and with
+lightning-like rapidity began to haul in hand _under_ hand [12] amid
+loud cries of approval as the wriggling body of the eel was seen
+ascending clear of the coral. The moment it reached the surface, a
+second native, with unerring aim sent a spear through it and then a blow
+or two upon the head with a club carried for the purpose took all
+further fight out of the creature, which was then lifted out of the
+water and dropped into the canoe. Here the end of its tail was quickly
+split open and we saw no more of him for the time being.
+
+To capture an eel so soon was looked upon as a lucky omen, to have lost
+it would have been a presage of ill-fortune for the rest of the day, and
+the incident put every one in high good humour. By this time the tide
+was flowing over the flatter parts of the reef and young bonito could be
+seen jumping out of the water in all directions. Immense bodies were, so
+I was assured by the natives, now coming into the lagoon from the sea,
+and would continue to do so till the tide turned, when those in the
+passage, unable to face a six-knot current, would be carried out again,
+to make another attempt later on.
+
+By this time every canoe was hauling in large rock-cod almost as quick
+as the lines could be baited, and the bottom of our own craft presented
+a gruesome sight--a lather of blood and froth and kicking fish, some of
+which were over 20 lbs. weight. Telling the two boys to cease fishing
+awhile and stun some of the liveliest, I unthinkingly began to bale out
+some of the ensanguined water, when a score of indignant voices bade me
+cease. Did I want to bring all the sharks in the world around us? I was
+asked; and old Viliamu, who was a sarcastic old gentleman, made a mock
+apology for me--
+
+"How should he know any better? The sharks of Tokelau have no teeth,
+like the people there, for they too are eaters of _fala_."
+
+This evoked a sally of laughter, in which of course I joined. I must
+explain that the natives of the Tokelau Group, among whom I had lived,
+through constantly chewing the tough drupes of the fruit of the _fala_
+(pandanus palm) wear out their teeth prematurely, and are sometimes
+termed "toothless" by other natives of the South Pacific. However, I was
+to have my own little joke at Viliamu's expense later on.
+
+Just at this time a sudden squall, accompanied by torrents of rain, came
+down upon us from the eastward, and whilst Mareko and his boys kept us
+head to wind--none of the canoes were anchored--I took the opportunity
+of getting ready two of my own lines, each treble-hooked, for the boys.
+Their own were old and rotten, and had parted so often that they were
+now too short to be of use, and, besides that, the few remaining hooks
+of soft wire were too small. As soon as the squall was over I showed
+Mareko what I had done. He nodded and smiled, but said I should try and
+break off the barbs--his boys did not understand them as well as
+native-made hooks. This was quickly accomplished with a heavy knife, and
+the youngsters began to haul up fish two and three at a time at such a
+rate that the canoe soon became deep in the water outside and very full
+inside.
+
+"A few more, Mareko," I said, "and then we'll go ashore, unload, and
+come back again. I want to tease that old man."
+
+We caught all we could possibly carry in another quarter of an hour, and
+I was confident that our take exceeded that of any other canoe. This was
+because the natives would carefully watch their stone sinkers descend,
+and use every care to keep them from being entangled in the coral,
+whilst my line, which had a 12 oz. leaden sinker, would plump quickly to
+the bottom in the midst of the hungry fish; consequently, although I
+lost some hooks by fouling and now and then dragged up a bunch of coral,
+I was catching more fish than any one else. And I was not going to let
+my reputation suffer for the sake of a few hooks. So we coiled up our
+lines on the outrigger platform, and taking up our paddles headed
+shoreward, taking care to pass near Viliamu's canoe. He hailed me and
+asked me for a pipe of tobacco.
+
+"I shall give it to you when we return," I said.
+
+"When you return! Why, where are you going?" he asked.
+
+"On shore, you silly old woman! I have been showing these boys how to
+fish for _gatala_, and we go because the canoe is sinking. When we
+return these two _tamariki_ (infants) shall show _you_ how to fish now
+that they have learnt from me."
+
+There was a loud laugh at this, and as the old man took the jest very
+good-naturedly I brought up alongside, showed him our take, and gave him
+a stick of tobacco. The astonishment of himself and his crew of three at
+the quantity of fish we had afforded me much satisfaction, though I
+could not help feeling that our luck was not due to my own skill alone.
+
+Returning to the islets we were just in time to escape two fierce
+squalls, which lasted half an hour and raised such a sea that the
+remaining canoes began to follow us, as they were unable to keep on the
+ground. During our absence the women and children had been most
+industrious; the weather-worn, dilapidated huts had been made habitable
+with freshly-plaited _kapaus_--coarse mats of green coconut leaves, the
+floors covered with clean white pebbles, sleeping mats in readiness, and
+heaps of young drinking nuts piled up in every corner, whilst outside
+smoke was arising from a score of ground ovens in which taro and puraka
+were being cooked, together with bundles of _atuli_ wrapped in leaves.
+
+Etiquette forbade Mareko and myself counting our fish until the rest of
+the party returned, although the women had taken them out of the canoe
+and laid them on the beach, where the pouring rain soon washed them
+clean and showed them in all their shining beauty. Among them were two
+or three parrot-fish--rich carmine, striped with bands of bright yellow,
+boneless fins, and long protruding teeth in the upper jaw showing out
+from the thick, fleshy lips; and one _afulu_--a species of deep-water
+sand mullet with purple scales and yellow fins.
+
+Whilst awaiting the rest of the canoes I drew the teacher into our hut
+and pressed him to take some whisky. He was wet, cold, and shivering,
+but resolutely declined to take any. "I should like to drink a little,"
+he said frankly, "but I must not. I cannot drink it in secret, and yet I
+must not set a bad example. Do not ask me, please. But if you like to
+give some to the old men do so, but only a very little." I did do so. As
+soon as the rest of the party landed I called up four of the oldest men
+and gave each of them a stiff nip. They were all nude to the waist, and
+like all Polynesians who have been exposed to a cold rain squall, were
+shivering and miserable. After each man had taken his nip and emitted a
+deep sigh of satisfaction I observed that hundreds of old white men
+saved their lives by taking a glass of spirits when they were wet
+through--they had to do so by the doctor's orders.
+
+"That is true," said one old fellow; "when men grow old, and the rain
+falls upon them it does not run off their skins as it would from the
+smooth skins of young men. It gets into the wrinkles and stays there.
+But when the belly is warmed with grog a man does not feel the cold."
+
+"True," I said gravely, as I poured some whisky out for myself; "true,
+quite true, my dear friends. And in these islands it is very bad for an
+old man to be exposed to much rain. That is why I am disturbed in my
+mind. See, there is Mareko, your minister. He, like you, is old; he is
+wet and cold. And he shivers. And he will not take a mouthful of this
+_rom_ because he fears scandal. Now if he should become ill and die I
+should be a disgraced man. This _rom_ is now not _rom_; it is medicine.
+And Mareko should take some even as you have taken it--to keep away
+danger."
+
+The four old fellows arose to the occasion. They talked earnestly
+together for a minute, and then formed themselves into a committee,
+requested me to head them as a deputation with the whisky, and then
+waited upon their pastor, who was putting on a dry shirt in another hut.
+I am glad to say that under our united protests he at last consented to
+save his life, and felt much better.
+
+Presently the women announced that the ovens were ready to be opened. As
+soon as the fish were counted, and the rain having ceased, we all
+gathered round the canoes and watched each one emptied of its load. As I
+imagined, our party had taken the most fish, and not only the most, but
+the heaviest as well. Mareko added to my blushing honours by informing
+the company that as a fisherman and a knowledgable man generally I
+justified his brother minister's opinion and would prove an acquisition
+to the community. We then inspected the first eel caught, and a truly
+huge creature it was, quite nine feet in length, and in girth at its
+thickest part, as near as I could guess with a piece of line, thirty
+inches. The line with which it was caught was made of new four-stranded
+coir-cinnet, as thick as a stout lead pencil, and the hook a piece of
+3/6 or 1/2 inch iron with a 6-inch shank, once used as a fish spear,
+without a barb! The natives seemed much pleased at the interest
+displayed, and told me that sometimes these eels grew to _elua gafa_
+(_i.e._, two fathoms), but were seldom caught, and asked me if I had
+tackle strong enough for such. Later on I showed them a 27-stranded
+American cotton line 100 fathoms long, with a 4-inch hook, curved in the
+shank, as thick as a pencil, and "eyed" for a twisted wire snooding.
+They had never seen such beautiful tackle before, and were loud in their
+expressions of admiration, but thought the line too thin for a very
+heavy fish. I told them that at Nanomaga I had caught _palu_ (a
+nocturnal feeding fish of great size) in over sixty fathoms with that
+same line.
+
+"That is true," said one of them politely, "we were told that you and
+Tiaki (one Jack O'Brien, an old trader) of Funafuti have caught many
+_palu_ with your long lines; but the _palu_ is a weak fish even when he
+is a fathom long. And as he comes up he grows weaker and weaker, and
+sometimes he bursts open when he comes to the surface. Now if a big
+eel--an eel two fathoms long--"
+
+"If he was three fathoms long he could not break this line," I replied
+positively.
+
+They laughed and told me that when I hooked even a small eel, one half a
+fathom in length, I would change my opinion.
+
+Soon after our midday meal was over, and we were preparing to return to
+our fishing-ground with an ample supply of fresh bait, the sky to
+windward became black and threatening, and through the breaks in the
+long line of palms on the weather side of the island, which permitted
+the horizon to be viewed, we could see that a squall of unusual violence
+was coming. All the canoes were at once hauled up on the lee-side of the
+islets, the huts were secured by ropes as quickly as possible, and every
+one hurried under shelter. In a few minutes the wind was blowing with
+astonishing fury, and the air was full of leaves, sticks, and other
+_debris_, whilst the coco-palms and other trees on the islets seemed
+likely to be torn up by the roots. This lasted about ten minutes. Then
+came a sudden lull, followed by a terrific and deafening downpour of
+rain; then more wind, another downpour, and the sun was out again!
+
+As soon as the squall was over, I walked round to the weather side of
+the islet with some children. We found the beach covered with some
+thousands of _atuli_ and beautiful little garfish which had been driven
+on shore by the force of the wind. We were soon joined by women carrying
+baskets, which they filled with fish and carried back to the camp. On
+returning, we again launched the canoes and started off again--to meet
+with some disappointment, for although the _gatala_ still bit freely and
+several eels were also taken, some scores of the small, pestilent,
+lagoon sharks were swimming about and played havoc with our lines. These
+torments are from two to four feet in length, and their mouths, which
+are quite out of proportion to their insignificant size, are set with
+rows of teeth of razor-like keenness. The moment a baited hook was seen
+one of these little wretches would dart at it like lightning, and
+generally bit the line through just above the hook. So quick were they,
+that one could seldom even feel a tug unless the hook got fast in their
+jaws. Taking off my sinker, and bending on a big hook with a wire snood,
+I abandoned myself to their destruction, and as fast as I hauled one
+alongside it was stunned, cut into three or four pieces, and thrown
+overboard to be devoured by its fellows. Many of the Ellice and Tokelau
+islanders regard these young sharks as a delicacy, as their flesh is
+very tender, and has not the usual unpleasant smell. In one of these
+young sea lawyers we found no less than five hooks, with pieces of line
+attached; these were duly restored to their owners.
+
+Another two hours passed, during which we had fairly good sport, then
+the rain began to fall so heavily that we gave up for the day. We spent
+the first part of the evening in the huts, eating, smoking, and talking,
+and overhauling our tackle for the next day. It had been intended that
+about midnight we should all go crayfishing in the shallow waters along
+the shore of the islets, but this idea had to be abandoned in
+consequence of the rain having soaked the coco palms--the dead branches
+of which are rolled and plaited into a cylindrical form and used as
+torches. The method of catching crayfish is very simple: a number of
+men, each carrying a _kaulama_ torch about 6 feet in length in the left
+hand, and a small scoop net in the right, walk waist-high through the
+water; the crayfish, dazed by the brilliant light, are whipped up into
+the nets and dropped into baskets carried by the women and children who
+follow. They can only be caught on dark, moonless nights.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When we returned to the village our spoils included besides a great
+number of fish, a few turtle and some young frigate birds. The latter
+were captured for the purpose of being tamed. I made many subsequent
+visits to the two islets, sometimes alone and sometimes with my native
+friends, and on each occasion I left these lovely little spots with a
+keen feeling of regret, for they are ideal resting-places to him who
+possesses a love of nature and the soul of a fisherman.
+
+
+
+
+_Mrs. MacLaggan's "Billy"_
+
+
+When Tom Denison was quite a young man he was earning a not too
+dishonest sort of a living as supercargo of a leaky old ketch owned by
+Mrs. Molly MacLaggan of Samoa, which in those days was the Land of
+Primeval Wickedness and Original and Imported Sin, Strong Drink, and
+Loose Fish generally. Captain "Bully" Hayes also lived in Samoa; his
+house and garden adjoined that of Mrs. MacLaggan, and at the back there
+was a galvanised iron cottage, inhabited by a drunken French carpenter
+named Leger, whose wife was a full-blooded negress, and made kava for
+Denison and "Bully" every evening, and used to beat Billy MacLaggan on
+the head with a pole about six times a day, and curse him vigorously in
+mongrel Martinique French. Billy MacLaggan was Mrs. Molly's male goat,
+and as notorious in Samoa as Bully Hayes himself.
+
+I want to try and tell this story as clearly as possible, but there are
+so many people concerned, and so many things which really happened
+together, though each one seemed to come before the other a little and
+try and get into the general jumble, and every one was so confused,
+some fatuous people blaming the goat, and some Denison, who was
+generally disliked by the Germans, while Mrs. Molly said it was caused
+by the man with the bucket of milk, and Captain Hayes who had bribed him
+to do it, and nearly caused bloodshed, as the German officer who was
+insulted by Hayes had shot a lot of people in duels, or if he had not
+shot them he had stuck his sword into them in fifteen places, more or
+less.
+
+Now let me explain: First of all there was Mrs. Molly, who was the
+hostess; then there was Hamilton, the Apia pilot and his wife; the
+manager of the big German firm at Matafale (he wore gold spectacles, and
+was very fond of Mrs. Molly, who was a widow); then there was Bully
+Hayes, and old Coe the American consul, and young Denison; all these
+were some of the local guests, and lived in Samoa, the rest were
+officers from a German man-of-war lying in port, and the usual
+respectable town loafers. Then there were Leger, the bibulous carpenter;
+'_Liza,_ his black wife; a white policeman named Thady O'Brien, and a
+loafing scoundrel of a Samoan named Mataiasi, called "Matty" for
+brevity, who was the public flogger, and milked Mrs. MacLaggan's herd of
+seven imported Australian cows; and lastly the goat, and about thirty or
+forty of Bully Hayes's crew, and as many Samoans, who came to look at
+the dancing and see what they could steal, Leger and his wife and the
+policeman and the town flogger had charge of the refreshment tables,
+which for the sake of coolness had been laid out upon the wide, back
+verandah, and handsomely decorated with pot plants and flags from the
+man-of-war, and blanc-manges and jellies, and tipsy cake, and cold roast
+pigeons and chickens were lying around as if they weren't worth two
+cents.
+
+The big wholesale store, which formed part of Mrs. Molly's house and
+establishment, made a fine ballroom. All the barrels of whisky and
+Queensland rum, and the cases of lager beer and Holland's gin, had been
+stowed neatly on each side, and covered over with flags and orange
+blossoms by Denison and Bully Hayes and his men, and the orange blossoms
+killed the smell of the rum so much that strangers would have thought it
+was sherry.
+
+Everything went on beautifully for the first two hours, and then Mrs.
+Molly asked Denison to take out a very pretty young half-caste lady and
+get her a drink of milk. When they reached the side table where the milk
+should have been, they found it all gone; but O'Brien the policeman said
+that Mataiasi had just started off to milk another cow.
+
+Just then Hayes came out to the refreshment tables with a lady on his
+arm. She was thirsty, and so "Bully" opened a large bottle of champagne,
+and she and he and Denison and the young half-caste lady drank it; then
+they drank another, and all went oft together to see Mataiasi milking
+the cow, which was tied up to a coconut tree just outside the fence. The
+cow was a yellow cow, and was standing very quietly, and just beside her
+Billy MacLaggan (who caused all this trouble) was lying down, working
+his jaws to and fro and making curious, snorting sounds in the bright
+and gorgeous moonlight. I forgot to say that Wm. MacLaggan was the
+largest and ugliest goat ever known to the memory of man, and had been
+taught every vice and wickedness any goat could be taught, and it is as
+natural for a goat to imbibe sin as it is for him to eat a cactus, or a
+hedgehog, or a tract.
+
+Hayes addressed the goat by his Christian name, and asked him how he
+did, and Billy looked at Hayes for a second or two out of his green,
+sharky eyes, then he rose in a dignified manner, and came over to him to
+be scratched under the chin. Then he blew himself out, snorted, and
+rubbed his horns against the captain's knee: and Hayes remarked to
+Denison that the poor beggar wanted a drink, and proposed to give him a
+"proper one."
+
+The goat knew perfectly well what "drink" meant, and made his vicious
+tail quiver; then he followed them back to the house, and stood at the
+foot of the steps waiting for Hayes and Tom to come out again.
+
+On the other side of the courtyard was Mrs. MacLaggan's laundry. The
+door was wide open and the place was in darkness, and no one took any
+notice when presently Tom sauntered out of the ballroom, picked up a
+large plateful of tipsy-cake, and, being kind to animals, gave a piece
+to William, who followed him into the laundry for the rest; then Hayes
+came in with a quart bottle of champagne, shut the door and struck a
+light. Then he opened the bottle of fizz and poured it out into a deep,
+enamelled starching-dish, and Billy MacLaggan drank thereof, and then
+raised his head, with his immoral-looking beard hanging in a sodden
+point like a wet deck-swab, and asked for more. That is, he asked as
+well as any Christian and civilised goat could ask, by standing up on
+his hind legs like a circus-horse and making strange, unearthly noises.
+Then he rammed his wicked old nose into the dish again, and pushed it
+all round the room, trying to sop up more liquor, which wasn't there,
+and trod on Denison's canvas-slippered foot, and knocked over the little
+tin kerosene oil lamp which was standing on the floor, and when Hayes,
+with loud and blasphemous remarks grabbed at the ironing-blanket of the
+laundry-table to extinguish the flames, he pulled the table down on the
+top of Denison and himself and the goat and everything, for the blanket
+was nailed on at the four corners, and when he was down on his hands and
+knees, the goat being exceedingly alarmed and half-drunk, and smelling
+his own hair burning, put his head down and charged at the universe in
+general, or anything else he could hit, and he hit Hayes fair on the
+temple with a noise like a ship's mainmast going by the board; then the
+people outside burst in the door, and the creature, with a bull-like
+bellow, charged out among them, and landed his bony head into the
+stomach of Mataiasi, who was carrying the bucket of milk, and was afraid
+to put it down when he saw him coming; then in some way the handle of
+the iron bucket got on Billy MacLaggan's horns, which simply made him
+thirst for gore, for he thought he was being made fun of because he was
+in liquor. With the bucket swinging and clattering and banging around,
+he made a dash up on the verandah, among the pretty muslin-clad ladies
+and white-duck suited men, creating havoc and destruction, and smelling
+of kerosene and burnt hair and ancient goat, and uttering horrible,
+blood-curdling _bah-h-h-s_, till he got into the card-table corner, and
+mistaking the wide glass window for an open door, he promptly jumped
+through it, and fell with a shower of glass outside on to the verandah
+again, where Thady O'Brien and the fat German with the spectacles fell
+on him, and tried to hold him down, and the spectacles were ground into
+dust and otherwise damaged, and some of the ladies endeavouring to
+escape out of the hideous _melee_ fell with him, and then the goat
+struggled to his feet with the bucket squashed flat against his
+forehead, and his horns covered with lace, and tulle, and bits of kid
+gloves, and planted one of his cloven forefeet into the shirt-front of a
+German officer, and smashed his watch. Then with another roar of
+defiance he burst through and disappeared into the wilderness at the
+back of Mrs. MacLaggan's garden, where he was followed by Leger, the
+drunken carpenter, and his wife, and nineteen Samoans, all armed with
+rifles. The army fired at him for two hours, and about midnight returned
+and reported him riddled with bullets, whereupon Mrs. Molly, who was a
+little hysterical at the awful mess and wreckage caused by the brute,
+thanked them and gave them ten dollars.
+
+Now it so happened that Billy MacLaggan was not killed at all, for about
+two o'clock in the morning, as Bully Hayes and Tom Denison were sitting
+on the verandah of the former's house at Matautu Point, drinking brandy
+and soda, and dabbing arnica bandages on their various contusions, Pilot
+Hamilton hailed them from the front gate. He had just left the dance
+with his wife, and was quite sober--for Samoa. He asked them to come on
+with him to his place, as Billy MacLaggan, he said, was lying down in
+Mrs. Hamilton's kitchen, and seemed poorly, and that he hoped Hayes
+would forgive the poor thing, which was only a dumb animal. So Hayes and
+Denison went and saw William, who was now sober and looked sorry. They
+dressed his wounds, and Tom Denison took him on board early in the
+morning, intending to take him to sea till the memory of his misdeeds
+had toned down a bit, for Billy was a great institution in Samoa, and
+had many friends. Hardly a white man in the place, no matter how hard up
+he was, but would stand Billy a bottle of lager or a chew of tobacco. (I
+forgot to mention that Billy would drink anything and chew anything,
+except cigarettes, at which he snorted with contempt.) Now Denison's
+little vessel was lying quite near the German man-of-war, and was to
+sail next day for the Solomons if the captain was sober, and he
+(Denison) had a lot of work to do to get the ship ready, and whilst he
+was poring over accounts in the cabin about noon, a boat ran alongside
+and Bully Hayes came into the cabin.
+
+"Where's Billy?" he said. "Quick, get him into my boat at once. There's
+a search-party coming on board, and the widow is going to give you the
+dirty kick-out, Tom Denison. There's been the devil to pay over that
+cursed goat, but I'm going to save his life all the same. But if she
+does sack you, you can come to me for a berth."
+
+Billy, who was placidly eating bananas on the main deck, was at once
+seized and hoisted over the side into Hayes's boat, which shoved off,
+leaving Hayes on board to explain things to Tom.
+
+It seemed that when the fat German manager--the man with spectacles--I
+mean the man who had the spectacles until Billy MacLaggan came in--the
+man who was courting Mrs. Molly--fell on the top of the goat, some other
+man trod on his face, and Leger (who was not sober enough to tell one
+person from another) said that he saw Tom Denison do it. Seven natives,
+male and female, swore that at the time alleged Tom was out on the beach
+bathing his crushed toe in the salt water, and using solemn British
+oaths; but Leger, who disliked Denison, who had once kicked him
+overboard violently for being drunk, not only stuck to the story, but
+said that Hayes and Tom had set the goat on fire on purpose to break up
+the dance and cause annoyance to the Germans present; also he vaguely
+hinted that they, Denison and Hayes, would have driven the seven cows
+into the ballroom but couldn't find them. Then Mrs. MacLaggan promised
+the fat man to sack Denison on the following morning, and at midnight,
+as I have said, word was brought in that Billy had been shot. But about
+ten in the morning Leger heard from some native that the goat was as
+well as ever, and on board Denison's vessel, and being a mean, spiteful
+little hound, off he trotted to the German manager, and said that
+Captain Hayes and Mr. Denison had rescued the creature. At that very
+moment the manager was talking to some German officers, one of whom was
+the man whose watch had been smashed, and as every German in Samoa hated
+Hayes most fervently, it was at once concluded that Hayes had trained,
+or suborned, or bribed, or corrupted the goat to do it. So a young
+lieutenant went and called upon Hayes, and demanded satisfaction for his
+friend, and Hayes was exceedingly rude to him, but said that if the man
+with the broken watch liked to meet Billy MacLaggan with his own
+weapons, and fight him in a goatsmanlike manner, for fifty dollars a
+side, he (Hayes) would put up Billy's fifty. Then the lieutenant asked
+for a written apology for his friend, and Hayes said that Billy couldn't
+write, and, anyway, he was Mrs. Molly's goat. If the man with the
+smashed nickel wanted an apology, why the blazes didn't he approach Mrs.
+MacLaggan? he asked.
+
+Whilst Hayes was telling all this to Tom, pulling his thick beard and
+laughing loudly, as they paced the little vessel's deck, the
+search-party came on board to recover the goat. The leader bore a letter
+from Mrs. MacLaggan to Tom, informing him that his services as
+supercargo were no longer required, also that he could come ashore at
+once and be paid off, as his conduct was heartless, and the consuls said
+it might lead to serious complications, as it had been done with intent
+to insult the citizens of a friendly nation, one of whom, as he was
+aware, had made the natives cut down the price of copra half a cent.
+Under these circumstances, &c.
+
+Tom grinned and showed the letter to Hayes. Then he turned to the mate.
+
+"I've got the sack, Waters. You're in charge of this rotten, filthy old
+hooker now until the old man is sober."
+
+He packed up his traps, went ashore, drew his money from Mrs.
+MacLaggan's cashier, and bade him goodbye.
+
+"Where's the goat, Tom?"
+
+"On board Bully Hayes' ship. His crool, crool mistress shall see him no
+more! Never more shall his plaintive call to his nannies resound o'
+nights among the sleeping palm-groves of the Vaisigago Valley;
+never----"
+
+The cashier jumped up out of his chair and seized the dismissed
+supercargo by the collar.
+
+"Stop that bosh, you rattlebrained young ass, and come and take a
+farewell drink."
+
+"Never more will he butt alike the just and the unjust, the fat and
+bloated German merchant nor the herring-gutted Yankee skipper, nor the
+bare--ah--um--legged Samoan, nor the gorgeous consul in the solar topee.
+Gone is the glory of Samoa with Billy MacLaggan. Goodbye for the
+present, Wade, old man--I am not so proud of my new dignity--I am to be
+supercargo of the brig _Rona_--as to refuse to drink with you, though
+you are but a cashier. And give my farewell to the widow, and tell her
+that I bear her no ill-will, for I leave a dirty little tub of a
+cockroach-infested ketch for a swagger brig, where I shall wear white
+suits every day and feel that peace of mind which--"
+
+"Oh, do dry up, you young beggar," said the good-natured cashier, whose
+laughter proved so infectious that Tom joined in.
+
+"Come then, Wade, just another ere we part."
+
+Now as these two were drinking in the cashier's office it happened that
+Thady O'Brien, the policeman (he was chief of the municipal police, and
+fond of drink) saw them, and invited himself to join them and also to
+express his sorrow at Denison's "misfortune," as he called it, for
+Denison was a lovable sort of youth, and often gave him drink on board.
+So they all sat down, Wade in the one chair, and Tom and the policeman
+on the table, and had several more drinks, and just then Mrs. MacLaggan
+came to the door, holding a note in her hand. She bowed coldly to Tom,
+whose three stiff drinks of brandy enabled him to give her a reproachful
+glance.
+
+"Captain Hayes wants to buy one or two of the nanny-goats, to take away
+with him to Ponape, Mr. Wade," she said. "I shall be glad to let him
+have them. Please tell Leger and Mataiasi to catch them at once."
+
+Then Mrs. MacLaggan went away, and Tom and O'Brien went down to the
+jetty to wait for a boat to take them on board--Tom to his duty, and
+O'Brien because he was thirsty again. Presently Leger and Mataiasi and a
+large concourse of native children came down, carrying two female goats,
+who, imagining they were to be cast into the sea, began to cry with
+great violence, and were immediately answered in a deep voice by Billy
+MacLaggan from over the water, whereupon Leger started to run off and
+tell Mrs. MacLaggan that Billy was alive, and on board the _Rona_, and
+Denison put out his foot and tripped him, and was at once assailed by
+Leger's black wife, who hit him on the head with a stick, and then
+herself was pushed backwards off the jetty into the water by Mr.
+O'Brien, taking several children and one of the goats with her, and in
+less than two minutes there was as pretty a fight as ever was seen.
+Several native police ran to help their superior officer, and a lot of
+dogs came with them; the dogs bit anybody and everybody
+indiscriminately, but most of them went for Leger and Denison, who were
+lying gasping together on the jetty, striving to murder each other; then
+a number of sailors belonging to a whaleship joined in, and tried to
+massacre or otherwise injure and generally maltreat the policemen, and
+by the time the boat from the _Rona_ came to the rescue the jetty looked
+like a battlefield, and one goat was drowned, and the new supercargo was
+taken on board to have his excoriations attended to, for he was in a
+very bad state.
+
+That is the end of the story, which I have told in a confused sort of
+away, I admit, because there are so many things in it, though I could
+tell a lot more about the adventures of Billy MacLaggan, after he went
+to sea with Captain Bully Hayes.
+
+
+
+
+_An Island Memory_
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+From early dawn wild excitement had prevailed in the great native
+village on the shores of Port Lele, and on board two ships which were
+anchored on the placid waters of the land-locked harbour. As the fleecy,
+cloud-like mist which, during the night, had enveloped the forest-clad
+spurs and summit of Mont Buache, was dispelled by the first airs of the
+awakened trade wind and the yellow shafts of sunrise, a fleet or canoes
+crowded with natives put off from the sandy beach in front of the king's
+house, and paddled swiftly over towards the ships, the captains of which
+only awaited their arrival to weigh and tow out through the passage.
+
+As the mist lifted, Cayse, the master of the _Iroquois_ of Sagharbour,
+stepped briskly up on the poop, and hailed the skipper of the other
+vessel, a small, yellow-painted barque of less than two hundred tons.
+
+"Are you ready, Captain Ross?"
+
+"All ready," was the answer; "only waiting for the military," and then
+followed a hoarse laugh.
+
+Cayse, a little, grizzled, and leathern-faced man of fifty, replied by
+an angry snarl, then turned to his mate, who stood beside him awaiting
+his orders.
+
+"Get these natives settled down as quickly as possible, Mr. North, then
+start to heave-up and loose sails. I reckon we'll tow out in an hour.
+The king will be here presently in his own boat. Hoist it aboard."
+
+North nodded in silence, and was just moving on to the main deck, when
+Cayse stopped him.
+
+"You don't seem too ragin' pleased this mornin', Mr. North, over this
+business. Naow, as I told you yesterday, I admire your feelin's on the
+subject, but I can't afford--"
+
+The mate's eyes blazed with anger.
+
+"And I tell you again that I won't have anything to do with it. I know
+my duty, and mean to stick to it. I shipped for a whaling voyage, and
+not to help savages to fight. Take my advice and give it up. Money got
+in this way will do you no good."
+
+Cayse shifted his feet uneasily.
+
+"I can't afford to sling away the chance of earnin' two or three
+thousan' dollars so easy. An' you'll hev to do your duty to me. Naow,
+look here--"
+
+North raised his hand.
+
+"That will do. I have said I will do my duty as mate, but not a hand's
+turn will I take in such bloody work as you and the skipper of that
+crowd of Sydney cut-throats and convicts are going into for the sake of
+six thousand dollars."
+
+"Well, I reckon we can do without you. Any one would think we was going
+piratin', instead of helping the king of this island to his rights.
+Naow, just tell me--"
+
+Again the mate interrupted him.
+
+"I am going for'ard to get the anchor up, and will obey all your orders
+as far as the working of the ship is concerned--nothing more."
+
+An hour later the two vessels, their decks crowded with three hundred
+savages, armed with muskets, spears, and clubs, were towed out through
+the narrow, reef-bound passage, and with the now freshening trade wind
+filling their sails, set a course along the coast which before sunset
+would bring them to Leasse, on the lee side of the island. But
+presently, in response to a signal from the _Lucy May_, the whaler lay
+to; a boat put off from the smaller ship, and Captain Ross came
+alongside, clambered over the bulwarks and joined Cayse and the young
+king of Port Lele, who were awaiting him on the poop, to discuss with
+him the plan of surprise and slaughter of the offending people of
+Leasse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nearly a week before the _Iroquois_ had run into Port Lele to refresh
+before proceeding westward and northward to the Bonin Islands in
+pursuance of her cruise. Charlik, the king, was delighted to see Cayse,
+for in the days when his father was king the American captain had
+conveyed a party of one hundred Strong's Islanders from Port Lele to
+MacAskill's Island, landed them in his boats during the night, and stood
+off and on till daylight, when they returned reeking from their work of
+slaughter upon the sleeping people, and bringing with them some scores
+of women and children as captives. For this service the king had given
+Cayse half a ton of turtle-shell, and the services of ten young men as
+seamen for as long a time as the _Iroquois_ cruised in the Pacific on
+that voyage. When Charlik's father was dying, he called his head chiefs
+around him, and gave the boy into their care with these words--"Here die
+I upon my mat like a woman, long before my time, and to-morrow my spirit
+will hear the mocking laughs of the men of Mout and Leasse, when they
+say, 'Sikra is dead; Sikra was but an empty boaster.'"
+
+Then his son spoke.
+
+"Not many days shall they laugh. They shall be destroyed all, all, all
+of them."
+
+The king touched his son's hand.
+
+"Those are good words. But be not too hasty. Wait till the American
+comes again. He will help with his men and guns. But he is a greedy man.
+Yet spare nothing; give him all the silver and gold money I have stored
+by for his return, and all the turtle-shell that can be gathered
+together. And let there be not even one little child left in Mout or
+Leasse."
+
+Charlik was a lad or seventeen when his savage old father died, and for
+a year after his death he harried and distressed his people by his
+exactions. All day long the men toiled at making coconut oil, and at
+night time they watched along the beaches for the hawk-bill turtle; the
+oil they put into huge butts, which stood in the king's boat-sheds, and
+the costly turtle-shell was taken by the young ruler and locked up in
+the seamen's chests which lined the inside wall of the great
+council-house. And no man durst now fire a musket at a wild pig, for
+powder and ball had been made _tapu_--such things were given up to the
+chiefs, lest they might be wasted, and every morning three young men
+climbed up the rugged side of Mont Buache, to keep a look-out for the
+ship whose captain would help their master to wreak a bloody vengeance
+upon the rebellious people of Leasse.
+
+At the end of the sixteenth month of watching, a sail appeared coming
+from the southward, and the watchers on the mountain-top sped down to
+the king's house, and sinking upon their knees in the courtyard of coral
+slabs, whispered their news to one of the king's serving-men, who, with
+a musket in his hand and a cutlass girt around his naked waist, stood
+sentry before the youthful despot's sleeping-room.
+
+"Good," said the king to Kanka, his head chief; "'tis surely the
+American Kesa,[13] for this is the month in which he said he would
+return. Let the women make ready a great feast, and launch my three
+boats, so that if the wind fail, when the sun is high, they may help to
+drag the ship into Lele."
+
+Then came the sound of beating drums, and the long, mournful note of the
+conch-shells calling the wild people together to prepare for the ship.
+Turtle were lifted from their walled-in prison holes on the reef, hogs
+were strangled, and the king's wives went hither and thither among his
+slave women, bidding them hasten to kindle the ovens, whilst children
+went out into the great canework cage, wherein were hundreds of the
+king's wild pigeons, and seizing the birds, began to pluck them alive.
+
+An hour passed. Charlik, sitting in a European chair, was watching the
+wild bustle and excitement around him in the courtyard, when his eye
+fell on the three messengers, who, with bent head and bended knees, were
+awaiting his further commands.
+
+Beckoning to a young, light-skinned woman, who stood near him, he bade
+her bring him three of his best pearl-shell bonito hooks. They were
+brought, and taking them from her, he threw them to the men.
+
+"Ye have watched well," he said. "There is thy reward. Now go and eat
+and sleep."
+
+With eyes sparkling with pleasure, the young men each took up his
+precious gift, and with crouching forms crept slowly over to the further
+side of the courtyard, where they were waited upon by women with food.
+
+Presently the fair young woman--his sister Se--returned to her brother's
+side.
+
+"The ship is near," she said, and then her voice faltered; "but it is
+not the ship of Kesa. It is but a small ship, and she hath but two
+boats. Kesa's had five."
+
+"What lies are these?" said the young savage fiercely. "Go look again."
+
+The girl left him, to return a few minutes later with grey-headed old
+Kanka, who in response to an inquiring look from his master, bent his
+head and said slowly--
+
+"'Tis a strange ship--one that never before have we seen in Lele."
+
+The youth made him no answer. He merely raised his arm and pointed his
+finger at the three messengers.
+
+"Then they have lied to me. Bring them here to me."
+
+Kanka stepped over to where the fated men were sitting. They rose at his
+behest, and crept over to the king; behind them, at some invisible sign
+given by him, followed a man with a heavy club of _toa_ wood. The
+clamour which had filled the courtyard ceased, and terrified silence
+fell. One by one the messengers knelt upon the coral flags--no need for
+them to ask for mercy from Charlik, the savage son of a bloodstained
+father. The bearer of the club held the weapon knob downward, and
+watched the king's face for the signal of death. He nodded, and then,
+one after another of the men were struck and fell prone upon the stones.
+With scowling eyes Charlik regarded them for a moment or two in silence,
+then he turned unconcernedly away, as some of his slaves came forward
+and carried the bodies out of sight.
+
+Suddenly he sprang to his feet, as a loud, long cry, first from a single
+throat, and then echoed and reechoed by a hundred more, came upward from
+the beach.
+
+"A ship! A ship! Another ship! The ship of Kesa!"
+
+Bidding his sister and the old chief Kanka to come with him, Charlik
+quickly left the house, and walking through a grove of breadfruit trees,
+reached a spot from where he had a full view of the open sea. There
+right in the passage was a small barque; and, almost within hail, and
+just rounding the northern horn of the reef was a larger vessel, one
+glance at which told Charlik that it was the American whaler for which
+he had so long waited. In less than an hour they were at anchor abreast
+of the king's house, and the two captains were being rowed ashore. They
+met on the beach. The master of the smaller vessel was a tall,
+broad-shouldered man, armed with a pair of pistols and a cutlass.
+Striding over the sand he held out his hand to the American.
+
+"Good day. My name's Ross, barque _Lucy May_, of Sydney, from the New
+Hebrides to Hong Kong with sandalwood."
+
+"Glad to meet ye. My name is Cayse, ship _Iroquois_, bound on a sperm
+whalin' cruise."
+
+Further speech was denied them, for suddenly the thronging and excited
+natives around them drew aside right and left as Charlik, with a face
+beaming with smiles, came up to Cayse with outstretched hand, and
+greeted him warmly in English. Then he turned quickly to the Englishman
+and shook hands with him also, and asked him from whence he came.
+
+"From Sydney. I came here to get wood, water, and provisions."
+
+"Good. You can get all you want. Have you muskets and bullets to sell?"
+
+"I can spare you some."
+
+"Ah, that is good. I want plenty, plenty. Now come to my house and eat
+and drink; then we can talk."
+
+It was well on towards sunset before Charlik and Cayse had finished
+their talk. Ross meanwhile had gone on board the barque for some
+firearms which he was giving the king in exchange for several boatloads
+of provisions. When he returned, with two of his crew carrying six
+muskets, a keg of powder, and a bag of bullets, Cayse met him on the
+threshold of the king's house.
+
+"Come inside, mister. The king wants to talk to you on a matter of
+business. I reckon you an' me together can do what he wants done. But
+jest come along with me first. I want to show you the kind of fellow he
+is when he gets upset."
+
+The master of the sandalwooder followed the American across the wide
+courtyard to some native houses. Stopping in front of one, from which
+the low murmur of women's voices, broken now and then by a wailing cry,
+proceeded, he desired Ross to look in through the doorway. A small fire
+of coconut shells was burning in the centre of the room, and _by_ its
+light Ross saw several women crouched round the bodies of three men,
+performing the last offices for the dead. They looked at the white
+strangers with apathetic indifference, but ceased their labours whilst
+Ross bent down and examined the still faces. His scrutiny was brief,
+but it was enough.
+
+Cayse gave a sniggering laugh. "I reckon you'll feel sorter startled,
+mister, when I tell you that you were the cause of those men getting
+clubbed, hey?"
+
+Ross frowned angrily. "What are you driving at? What the devil had I to
+do with it?"
+
+"On'y this. You see I'm the white-headed boy with this young island
+cock, an' he's been expectin' to see the _Iroquois_ for quite a time.
+Your barque happened to heave in sight first, an' these three fellows
+who were standin' mast-head watch up thar on the mountain, came tearin'
+down an' reported that it was my old hooker. Charlik bein' a most
+impatient young fellow, had 'em clubbed on the spot; he should hev
+waited another five minutes. Come on, he's ready to talk business with
+us now."
+
+In the centre of the big council room Charlik, attended by his sister,
+was seated upon a mat. A couple of brightly burning ship's lanterns
+suspended from the beams overhead, revealed the figures of a score of
+armed natives, seated with their backs to the canework walls of the
+room; midway between them and the young king were two seamen's chests,
+beside which crouched the half-naked, tatooed form or old Kanka.
+
+Followed by the sailors carrying the muskets, the two captains walked
+over the soft, springy floor of mats, and seated themselves facing the
+young man. His eye lit up at the sight of the arms, and then he desired
+Ross to tell his men to withdraw. Then as the sound of their footsteps
+died away, he looked at Cayse and said briefly--
+
+"Go on, capen. You talk."
+
+Cayse went into the subject at once.
+
+"Captain Ross, do you want to earn three thousand dollars?"
+
+"Don't mind."
+
+"Neither do I. Well, just listen. The king here has three thousand
+dollars in cash and three thousand dollars' worth of coconut ile and
+turtle-shell. Now, if you and I will help him to do a bit of fightin'
+it's ours. The money and shell is here in this room, the ile is in the
+sheds near by. If you agree, the king will hand us over the money now,
+and we can ship the ile in the morning."
+
+Ross thought a moment, then he said suspiciously--
+
+"Why are you giving me a chance?"
+
+"Not from any feelin' of affection for you, mister," answered Cayse with
+his peculiar snarl, "but because I ain't able to do the whole business
+myself--if I could I wouldn't ask _you_ to come in. Now, I noticed this
+mornin' that you carry a big crew, and have six guns, and I reckon thet
+you hev to use 'em sometimes in your business?"
+
+Ross laughed grimly. "All of us sandalwooding ships carry a few
+nine-pounders as well as plenty of small arms. We are allowed to do so
+by the Governor of New South Wales."
+
+"Just so. Well, now, listen. This island is governed by two chiefs;
+this one here, Charlik, has most people, but the other lot, who live on
+the lee side of the island, rebelled against his father more'n ten years
+ago. They've had a good many fights, an' in the last one these Lele
+people got badly whipped. Charlik is the proper king, but ever since a
+white man named Ledyard went to live with the Leasse people, they've
+refused to pay tribute. This Ledyard is the cause of all the trouble,
+and he has taught his natives how to fight European fashion. There's
+only about six hundred of 'em altogether--men, women, and
+children--eh, Charlik?"
+
+The young chief nodded in assent.
+
+"Now, by a bit of luck, news came up the other day by one of Charlik's
+spies that Ledyard has gone away to Ponape in a cutter he has built. It
+will take him two or three weeks to go there and back, and now is the
+time for Charlik to wipe out old scores--the Leasse people won't stand
+much of a chance agin' a night attack by three hundred of Charlik's
+people. If Ledyard was there it would be different."
+
+Ross soon made his decision. He was a man utterly without pity, and
+Cayse who, while inciting others to slaughter for the sake of his own
+gain, yet had some grains of compunction in his nature, almost shuddered
+when the master of the _Lucy May_ laughed hoarsely and said--
+
+"It's a bargain--just the thing that my crowd could tackle and carry
+through themselves. Two voyages ago me and my beauties wiped out every
+living soul on one of the Cartaret's Islands. I'll tell you the yarn
+some day. But look here, king, can't we make another deal about the
+women and children. Let me keep as many of them as I have room for
+aboard, and I'll pay for them in muskets and powder and bullets."
+
+"What do you want with them?"
+
+"Sell them to old Abba Dul, the king of the Pelews. I've done business
+with him before."
+
+Charlik called Kanka over to him, and the two spoke in low tones. Then
+the young ruler of Lele shook his head.
+
+"No. There must be but one left to live--the white man's wife. Now we
+shall count this money."
+
+The boxes were carried over directly under the rays of the lamps and
+opened, the bags containing the money lifted out, the coins counted, and
+then evenly divided between the two wolves.
+
+On the following morning the casks of oil were rolled down to the beach
+and rafted off to the two ships, and before dawn, on the fourth day,
+Ross and his fellow-ruffian sent word ashore to the king that all was
+ready, and that he and his fighting men could come on board at once and
+proceed on their dreadful mission.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+As the two captains and their ferocious young employer sat on the
+snow-white poop of the _Iroquois_ and discussed the plan of attack, the
+ship and barque kept closely together, so closely that North, who had
+not yet placed foot on board the sandalwooder, had now an opportunity of
+looking down upon her decks, and watching the actions of those who
+manned her. A more ragged and desperate looking lot of ruffians he had
+never seen in his life; and their wild, unkempt appearance was in
+perfect accord with the _Lucy May_ herself, whose dirty, yellow sides
+were stained from stem to stern with long streaks and broad patches of
+iron-rust. Aloft she was in as equally a bad condition, and North and
+his fellow-officers, used to the trimness and unceasing care of a
+whaleship's sails and running gear, looked with contempt at the disorder
+and neglect everywhere visible. On deck, however, some attempt at
+setting things ship-shape were being made by the two mates and
+boatswain, the six guns were being overhauled, and a pile of muskets
+lying on the main hatch were being examined and passed up to the poop
+one by one, to old Kanka, who was in command of the contingent of Lele
+natives on board the barque. Similar preparations with small arms were
+being made on board the _Iroquois_ by her crew which, largely composed
+of Chilenos, Portuguese, and Polynesians, had eagerly accepted the offer
+of twenty dollars for each man for a few hours' fighting. North alone
+had spoken against and tried to dissuade his fellow-officers from taking
+any active part in the expedition, but his remonstrances fell upon
+unheeding ears. The details of the scheme to surprise the unsuspecting
+inhabitants of the two villages had filled him with unutterable horror
+and indignation, and all sorts of wild plans formed in his brain to
+prevent the accomplishment of the cruel deed. For the consequences of
+such interference to himself he cared nothing. He was alone in the
+world, and had no thought beyond that of making enough money to enable
+him to one day buy a ship of his own. Once, as he passed the trio on the
+poop, and glanced at the smooth, olive-coloured features of the young
+king, who, with anticipative zest, was fondling a rifle which Ross had
+brought on board for him, he felt inclined to whip a belaying-pin out of
+the rail and bring it crashing down upon his skull. Had there been any
+other ship but the _Lucy May_ near, he would have left the _Iroquois_
+that moment. But help was coming to his troubled mind.
+
+An hour before sunset the two vessels ran into a little harbour, then
+called Port Lottin, but now known as South Harbour by the few wandering
+whalers which sometimes touch at the island. Here, ere it became dark,
+the natives, with fourteen of the _Lucy May's_ crew under Ross, were
+landed. They were to march at early morning, cross the mountain range
+which intervened between South Harbour and Leasse, and then, hidden by
+the dense forest, await the appearance of the ships off the doomed
+villages on the following afternoon. The six boats--two from the _Lucy
+May_ and four from the _Iroquois_--were to pull ashore as soon as the
+ships were off Leasse and take up positions, three to the north and
+three to the south, so as to cut off all who attempted to escape along
+the beaches from the attack which would be made by Ross. Charlik was to
+command one of the boat parties, Cayse the other, and should any canoes
+with fugitives attempt to gain the open sea, they were to be sunk by the
+_Lucy May's_ guns, for she was to anchor in such a position that an
+escaping canoe would have to pass within fifty yards of her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Eight bells had struck, and North, who had declined to join the captain
+and his fellow-officers at supper, was sitting in his cabin smoking and
+listening to the soft hum of the surf on the barrier reef a mile away.
+On deck all was quiet, only the fourth mate and three of the hands were
+keeping watch, the rest of the crew who were not turned in had gone
+ashore to witness a dance given by King Charlik's warriors.
+
+Suddenly he heard a footfall on the cabin deck, and then some one said
+in a low voice--
+
+"May I come in, sir?"
+
+North, recognising the voice as that of a young man named Macy, his own
+harpooner, at once bade him enter.
+
+Macy, a sunburnt, blue-eyed youth, closed the cabin door behind him, and
+held up his finger to enjoin silence.
+
+"I've only just now heard, sir, that you will not take a hand in this
+work which is going on. Neither will I, sir; for those damned savages
+are going to kill all the poor women and children. I've come to ask you
+what I'm to do if I'm ordered away in the boat? My God! Mr. North, must
+we all be turned into a gang of murderers like those fellows on the
+_Lucy May!_"
+
+The officer shook the young seaman's hand. "I for one will have no hand
+in it, my lad; and I wish there were more of us on board of our way of
+thinking. I wish we could leave the ship. I would rather die of thirst
+on the open ocean ... Macy, my lad, will you stand to me?"
+
+"Stand to you, sir! Aye, Mr. North. If you mean to take to our boat,
+sir, I am with you."
+
+"No," answered North in a whisper. "That, after all, would only save us
+two from being mixed up in this murderous business--I want to prevent it
+altogether. Have you heard how far it is across the island to this place
+Leasse?"
+
+"Seven miles, sir, over the mountains."
+
+"And twenty by the boats! Macy, I am determined to leave the ship
+to-night, cut across the island, and save the poor people from massacre.
+Will you come? We may pay for it with our lives."
+
+The harpooner raised his rough hand. "We must all die some day, sir."
+
+For some minutes they conversed in whispered tones; then Macy slipped on
+deck, and North took his pistols from their racks, filled his coat
+pockets with ammunition, and then followed him. His own boat was lying
+astern.
+
+Telling the cooper, who was the only one of the afterguard on deck, that
+he was going ashore to look at the dance, and that only Macy and another
+hand need come with him, North ordered the boat to be hauled alongside.
+A quarter of an hour later he and Macy stepped out upon the shore under
+the shadow of a high bluff, and quite out of view from Ross and his
+party, although the many camp-fires cast long lines of light across the
+sleeping waters of the little harbour.
+
+Informing the boat-keeper that they should return in a couple of hours,
+the two men first walked along the beach in the direction of the
+encampment. Then once out of sight from the boat, they struck inland
+into a deep valley through which, Macy said, a narrow track led up to
+the range, and then downwards to the two villages. After a careful
+search the track was found, and the bright stars shining through the
+canopy of leaves overhead gave them sufficient light to pursue their
+way. For two hours they toiled along through the silent forest, hearing
+no sound except now and then the affrighted rush of some startled wild
+boar, and, far distant, the dull cry of the ever-restless breakers upon
+the coral reef. At last the summit of the range was reached, and they
+sat down to rest upon the thick carpet of fallen leaves which covered
+the ground. Here North took a spirit-flask from his jacket, and Macy and
+he drank in turns.
+
+"Do you know, sir," said Macy, as he returned the flask to the officer,
+"that there's a white man living at this village?"
+
+"He's not there now, Macy. He's gone away to another island in his
+cutter."
+
+"I know that, sir. I've heard all about it from one of the chaps on the
+_Lucy May_. The man's name is Ledyard, and this young devil's-limb of a
+king hates him like poison--for two reasons. One is, that Ledyard, who
+settled in Leasse a few years ago, taught the people there how to use
+their muskets in a fight, when Charlik's father tried to destroy them
+time and again; the other is that his wife is a white woman--or almost a
+white woman, a Bonin Island Portuguese--and Charlik means to get her.
+When Ledyard comes back in his cutter he will walk into a trap, and be
+killed as soon as he steps ashore."
+
+North struck his hand upon the ground. "And to think that I have sailed
+with such a villain as Cayse, who--"
+
+"That's not all. Ledyard has two children. Charlik has given orders for
+them to be killed, as he says he only wants the woman! Ross, I believe,
+wanted him to spare 'em, but the young cut-throat said 'No.' I heard all
+this from two men--the chap from the _Lucy May_ and one of Charlik's
+fighting men, who speaks English and seems to have a soft place in his
+heart for Ledyard."
+
+The mate of the _Iroquois_ sprang to his feet. "The cold-blooded
+wretches! Come on, Macy. We _must_ get there in time."
+
+For another two hours they made steady progress through the darkened
+forest aisles, and then as they emerged out upon a piece of open
+country, they saw far beneath them the gleaming sea. And here, amidst a
+dense patch of pandanus palms, the path they had followed came to an
+end. Pushing their way through the thorny leaves, which tore the skin
+from their hands and faces, Macy exclaimed excitedly--
+
+"We're all right, sir. I can see a light down there. It must be a fire
+on the beach."
+
+Heedless of the unknown dangers of the deep descent, and every now and
+then tripping and falling over the roots of trees and fallen timber,
+they again came out into the open, and there, two hundred feet below
+them, they saw the high-peaked, saddle-backed houses of Leasse village
+standing clearly out in the starlight. But at this point their further
+progress was barred by a cliff, which seemed to extend for half a mile
+on both sides of them. Cautiously feeling their way along its ledge they
+sought in vain for a path.
+
+"We must hail them, Macy. There will be sure to be plenty of them who
+can speak a little English and show us the way to get down."
+
+Returning as quickly as possible to the spot immediately over the
+village, the officer gave a long, loud hail.
+
+"_Below there, you sleepers!_"
+
+The hoarse, shrieking notes of countless thousands of roosting
+sea-birds, as they rose in alarm from their perches in the forest trees,
+mingled with the barking of dogs from the village, and then came a wild
+cry of alarm from a human throat.
+
+Waiting for a few moments till the clamour had somewhat subsided, the
+two men again hailed in unison.
+
+"_Below there! Awake, you sleepers!_"
+
+Another furious outburst of yelping and barking--through which ran the
+quavering of voices of the affrighted natives--smote the stillness of
+the night. Then the bright light of torches of coconut leaves flashed
+below, nude figures ran swiftly to and fro among the houses, and then
+came a deep-voiced answering hail in English--
+
+"_Hallo there! Who hails_?"
+
+"Two white men," was the officer's quick reply. "We cannot get down.
+Bear a hand with a torch; we have lost the track." Then as something
+flashed across his mind, he added, "Who are you? Are you a white man?"
+
+"Yes. I am Tom Ledyard."
+
+"Thank God for that! Send a light quickly. You and your people are in
+deadly danger."
+
+In a few minutes the waiting men saw the gleam of torches amid the trees
+to their right, and presently a tall, bearded, white man appeared,
+followed by half a dozen natives. All were armed with muskets, whose
+barrels glinted and shone in the firelight.
+
+Springing forward to meet him, North told his story in as few words as
+possible.
+
+Ledyard's dark face paled with passion. "By heaven, they shall get a
+bloody welcome! Now, come, sir; follow me. You must need rest badly."
+
+As they passed through the village square, now lit up by many fires and
+filled with alarmed natives, Ledyard called out in his deep tones--
+
+"Gather ye together, my friends. The son of the Slaughterer is near.
+Send a man fleet of foot to Mout and bid him tell Nena, the chief, and
+his head men to come to my house quickly, else in a little while our
+bones will be gnawed by Charlik's dogs."
+
+Then with North and Macy besides him, he entered his house, the largest
+in the village. A woman, young, slender, and fair-skinned, met them at
+the door. Behind her were some terrified native women, one of whom
+carried Ledyard's youngest child in her arms.
+
+"'Rita, my girl," said Ledyard, placing his hand on his wife's shoulder
+and speaking in English, "these are friends. They have come to warn us.
+That young hell-pup, Charlik, is attacking us tomorrow. But quick, girl,
+get something for these gentlemen to eat and drink."
+
+But North and the harpooner were too excited to eat, and, seated
+opposite their host, they listened eagerly to him as he told them of his
+plans to repel the attack; of the bitter hatred that for ten years had
+existed between the people of Leasse and the old king; and then--he set
+his teeth--how that Se, the friendly sister of the young king, had once
+sent a secret messenger to him telling him to guard his wife well, for
+her brother had made a boast that when Leasse and Mout were given to the
+flames only Cerita should be spared.
+
+"Then, ten days ago, Mr. North, thinking that this young tiger-cub
+Charlik knew that these people here were well prepared to resist an
+attack, I left in my cutter on a trading voyage to Ponape. Three days
+out the vessel began to make water so badly that I had to beat back. I
+only came ashore yesterday."
+
+He rose and walked to and fro, muttering to himself. Then he spoke
+again.
+
+"Mr. North, and you, my friend"--turning to Macy--"have saved me and
+those I love from a sudden and cruel death. What can I do to show my
+gratitude? You cannot now return to your ship; will you join your
+fortunes with mine? I have long thought of leaving this island and
+settling in Ponape. There is money to be made there. Join me and be my
+partners. My cutter is now hauled up on the beach--if she were fit to go
+to sea we could leave the island to-night. But that cannot be done. It
+will take me a week to put her in proper repair--and to-morrow we must
+fight for our lives."
+
+North stretched out his hand. "Macy and I will stand by you, Ledyard. We
+do not want to ever put foot again on the deck of the _Iroquois_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The story of that day of bloodshed and horror, when Charlik and his
+white allies sought to exterminate the whole community, cannot here be
+told in _all_ its dreadful details. Seventy years have come and gone
+since then, and there are but two or three men now living on the island
+who can speak of it with knowledge as a tale of "the olden days when we
+were heathens." Let the rest of the tale be told in the words of one of
+those natives of Leasse, who, then a boy, fought side by side with
+Ledyard, North, and Macy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The sun was going westward in the sky when the two ships rounded the
+point and anchored in what you white men now call Coquille Harbour. We
+of Leasse, who watched from the shore, saw six boats put off, filled
+with men. There pulled inside the reef, and went to the right towards
+Mout; three went to the left. Letya (Ledyard), with the two white
+strangers who had come to him in the night, and two hundred of our men,
+had long before gone into the mountains to await Charlik and his
+fighting men, and their white friends. They--Letya and the Leasse
+people--made a trap for Charlik's men in the forest. Charlik himself was
+in the boats with the other white men. He wanted to see the people of
+Leasse and Mout driven into the water, so that he might shoot at them
+with a new rifle which Kesa or the other ship captain--I forget
+which--had given to him. But he wanted most of all to get Cerita, the
+wife of Letya, the white man. Only Cerita was to live. These were
+Charlik's words. He did not know that her husband had returned from the
+sea. Had he known that, he would not have given all his money and all
+his oil to the two white captains to help him to make Leasse and Mout
+desolate and give our bones to his dogs to eat.
+
+"It was a great trap--the trap prepared by Letya; and Charlik's men and
+the white men with them fell in it. They fell as a stone falls in a deep
+well, and sinks and is no more seen of men.
+
+"This was the manner of the trap: The path down the cliff was between
+two high walls of rock; at the foot of the cliff was a thick clump of
+high pandanus trees growing closely together. In between these trees
+Letya built a high barrier of logs, encompassing the outlet of the path
+to Leasse. This barrier was a half circle; the two ends touched the edge
+of the cliff, and the centre was hidden among the pandanus trees. On the
+top of this barrier the men of Leasse waited with loaded muskets; lower
+down on the ground were others, they too had loaded muskets. On the top
+of the cliff where the path led down, fifty men were hidden. They were
+hidden in the thick scrub which we call _oap. Oap_ is a good thing in
+which to hide from an enemy, and then spring from and slay him suddenly.
+
+"I, who was then a boy, saw all this. I heard Letya, our white man, tell
+the head of our village that Charlik's men would enter into the trap and
+perish. Then kava was made, and Letya and the head men drank. Kava is
+good, but rum is better to make men fight. We had no rum, but we had
+great love for Letya and his wife, and his two children, and great hate
+for Charlik. So we said, 'If this is death, it is death,' and every man
+went to his post--some to the barrier at the foot of the cliff, and some
+to the thicket of _oap_ on the summit. Cerita, the wife of Letya the
+Englishman, was weeping. She was weeping because Nena, the chief of
+Mout, was waiting in the house to kill her if her husband should be
+slain. But she did not weep because of the fear of death; it was for her
+children she wept. That is the way of women. What is the life of a child
+to the life of a man?
+
+"Nena was my father's brother. He was a brave man, but was too old to
+fight, for his eyes were dimmed by many years. So he sat beside Cerita
+and her two children, with a long knife in his hand and waited. He
+covered his face with a mat and waited. It was right for him to do this,
+for Letya was a great man; and his wife, although she was a foreigner,
+was an honoured woman. Therefore though Nena might not look upon her
+face at other times, he could kill her if Letya said she must die. This
+was quite right and correct. A wife must be guided by her husband and do
+what is right and correct, and avoid scandal.
+
+"For many hours the women in the houses waited in silence. Then suddenly
+they heard the thunder of two hundred guns, and the roaring of voices,
+then more muskets. They ran out of the houses and looked up to the
+cliff, and lo! the sky was bright as day, for when Charlik's people and
+the white men walked into the trap in the darkness, Letya and our people
+set alight great heaps of dry leaves and scrub, which were placed all
+along the barrier of logs. This was done so that they could see better
+to shoot. There were thirty or forty of Charlik's men killed by that
+volley. The white man who was leading them was very brave; he tried to
+climb over the barrier, but fell back dead, for a man named Sru thrust a
+whale-lance into his heart. All this time the other white men and the
+rest of Charlik's people were firing their muskets, but their bullets
+only hit the heavy logs of the barrier, and Letya and our people killed
+them very easily by putting their muskets through the spaces. When the
+sailors saw their captain fall, they tried to run away, and the Lele
+warriors ran with them. But when they reached the path which led up
+between the cliff, it too was blocked, and many of them became jammed
+together between the walls, and these were all killed very easily--some
+with bullets, and some with big stones. Then those that were left ran
+round and found inside the trap, trying to get out. They were like rats
+in a cask, and our people kept killing them as they ran. Some of
+them--about thirty--did climb over, but all were killed, for when they
+jumped down on the other side our people were there waiting. At last
+four of the sailors made a big hole by tearing out two posts, and rushed
+out, followed by the Lele men. Letya was the first man to meet the
+sailors, and he told them to surrender. Two of them threw down their
+arms, but the other two ran at Letya, and one of them ran his cutlass
+into him. It went in at the stomach, and Letya fell. We killed all these
+white sailors, but some of the Lele men escaped. That was a great pity,
+but then how can these things be helped?" The two strange white men who
+were fighting beside Le|tya, picked him up, and they carried him into
+his house. He was not dead, but he said, 'I shall soon die, take me to
+my wife.' I did not go with them to the house. I went into the barrier
+with the other youths to kill the wounded. It is a foolish thing not to
+kill wounded men; they may get better and kill you. So we killed them.
+There were fourteen white men slain in that fight beside their captain.
+
+"Before it was daylight some of our men set out along the beach to look
+for the boats. They did not want to kill any more white men, but they
+did want to kill Charlik. They were very fortunate, for before they had
+gone far on their way they saw three of the boats coming along close in
+to the beach. So they hid behind some rocks. Charlik was in the first
+boat; he was standing in the bow pointing out the way. When he came very
+close they all fired together, and Charlik's life was gone. He fell dead
+into the sea. Then the boats all turned seaward, and pulled hard for the
+ships. Then before long, we saw the other three boats going back to the
+ships; in these last were four of Charlik's men who had escaped. The
+boats were quickly pulled up, and the ships sailed away, for those on
+board were terrified when they heard that all the white men they had
+sent to fight were dead.
+
+"Letya did not die at once--not for two days. Cerita his wife and two
+white men watched beside him all this time. Before he died he called the
+head men to him, and said that he gave his small ship to the two white
+men, together with many other things. All his money he gave to his wife,
+and told her she must go away with the white men, who would take her
+back to her own people. To the head men he gave many valuable things,
+such as tierces of tobacco and barrels of powder. This was quite right
+and proper, and showed he knew what was correct to do before he died. We
+buried him on the little islet over there called Besi.
+
+"The two white men and Cerita and her two children went away in the
+little ship. But they did not go to Cerita's country: they remained at
+Ponape, and there the tall man of the two--the officer--married Cerita.
+All this we learnt a year afterwards from the captain of a whaling ship.
+It was quite right and proper for Letya's widow to marry so quickly, and
+to marry the man who had been a friend to her husband."
+
+
+
+
+_A Hundred Fathoms Deep_
+
+
+There is still a world or discovery open to the ichthyologist who, in
+addition to scientific knowledge, is a lover of deep-sea fishing, has
+some nerve, and is content to undergo some occasional rough experiences,
+if he elects to begin his researches among the many island groups of the
+North and South Pacific. I possessed, to some extent, the two latter
+qualifications; the former, much to my present and lasting regret, I did
+not. Nearly twenty-six years ago the vessel in which I sailed as
+supercargo was wrecked on Strong's Island, the eastern outlier of the
+fertile Caroline Archipelago, and for more than twelve months I devoted
+the greater part of my time to traversing the mountainous island from
+end to end, or, accompanied by a hardy and intelligent native, in
+fishing, either in the peculiarly-formed lagoon at the south end, or two
+miles or so outside the barrier reef.
+
+The master of the vessel, I may mention, was the notorious, over
+maligned, and genial Captain Bully Hayes, and from him I had learnt a
+little about some of the generally unknown deep-sea fish of Polynesia
+and Melanesia. He had told me that when once sailing between Aneityum
+and Tanna, in the New Hebrides, shortly after a severe volcanic eruption
+on the former island had been followed by a submarine convulsion, his
+brig passed through many hundreds of dead and dying fish of great size,
+some of which were of a character utterly unknown to any of his native
+crew--men who came from all parts of the North and South Pacific. More
+remarkable still, some of these fish had never before been seen by the
+inhabitants of the islands near which they were found. There were, he
+said, some five or six kinds, but they were all of the groper family.
+One of three which was brought on board was discovered floating on the
+surface when the ship was five miles off Tanna. A boat was lowered, but
+on getting up to it, the crew found they were unable to lift it from the
+water; it was, however, towed to the ship, hoisted on board, and cut
+into three parts, the whole of which were weighed, and reached over 300
+lbs. In colour it was a dull grey, with large, closely-adhering scales
+about the size of a florin; the fins, tail, and lips were blue. Another
+one, weighing less, had a differently-shaped head, with a curious,
+pipe-like mouth; this was a uniform dull blue. A similar upturning from
+the ocean's dark depths of strange fish occurred during a submarine
+earthquake near Rose Island, a barren spot to the south-west of Samoa.
+The disturbance threw up vast numbers of fish upon the reefs of Manua,
+the nearest island of the group, and the natives looked upon their great
+size and peculiar appearance with unbounded astonishment.
+
+Without desiring to bore the reader with unnecessary details of my own
+experiences in the South Seas, but because the statement bears on the
+subject of this article--a subject which has been my delight since I was
+a boy of ten years of age--I may say that, nine years after the loss of
+Captain Hayes's vessel on Strong's Island, I was again shipwrecked on
+Peru, one of the Gilbert, or, as we traders call them, the "Line"
+Islands. Here I was so fortunate as to take up my residence with one of
+the local traders, a Swiss named Frank Voliero, who was an ardent
+deep-sea fisherman, and whose catches were the envy and wonder of the
+wild and intractable natives among whom he lived; for he had excellent
+tackle, which enabled him to fish at depths seldom tried by the natives,
+who have no reason to go beyond sixty or eighty fathoms. In the long
+interval that had elapsed since my fishing days in the Carolines and my
+arrival at Peru Island, I had gained such experience in my hobby in many
+other parts of the Pacific as falls to few men, and the desire to fish
+in deep water, and get something that astonished the natives of the
+various islands, had become a passion with me. Voliero and myself went
+out together frequently, and, did space permit, I should like to
+describe the fortune that attended us at Peru, as well as my fishing
+adventures at Strong's Island.
+
+In a former work I have endeavoured to describe that extraordinary
+nocturnal-feeding fish, the _palu_, and the manner of its capture by
+the Malayo-Polynesian islanders of the Equatorial Pacific, and in the
+present article I shall try to convey to my readers an idea of deep-sea
+fishing in the South Seas generally. When I was living on the little
+island of Nanomaga (one of the Ellice Group, situated about 600 miles to
+the north-west of Samoa), as the one resident trader, I found myself
+in--if I may use the term--a marine paradise, as far as fishing went.
+The natives were one and all expert fishermen, extremely jealous of
+their reputation of being not only the best and most skilful men in
+Polynesia in the handling of their frail canoes in a heavy surf, but
+also of being deep-learned in the lore of deep-sea fishing.
+
+My arrival at the island caused no little commotion among the young
+bloods, each of whose chances of gaining the girl of his heart, and
+being united to her by the local Samoan missionary teacher, depended in
+a great measure upon his ability to provide sustenance for her from the
+sea; for Nanomaga, like the rest of the Ellice Group, is but little more
+than a richly-verdured sandbank, based upon a foundation of coral, and
+yielding nothing to its people but coconuts and a coarse species of
+taro, called puraka. The inhabitants, in their low-lying atolls, possess
+no running streams, no fertile soil, in which, as in the mountainous
+isles of Polynesia, the breadfruit, the yam, and the sweet potato grow
+and flourish side by side with such rich and luscious fruits as the
+orange and banana, and pineapple--they have but the beneficent coconut
+and the evergiving sea to supply their needs. And the sea is kind to
+them, as Nature meant it to be to her own children.
+
+The native missionary at Nanomaga was a Samoan. He was intended by
+nature to be a warrior, a leader of men; or--and no higher praise can I
+give to his dauntless courage--a boat-header on a sperm whaler. Strong
+of arm and quick of eye, he was the very man to either throw the harpoon
+or deal the death-giving thrust or the lance to the monarch of the ocean
+world; but fate or circumstance had made him a missionary instead. He
+was a fairly good missionary, but a better fisherman.
+
+Three miles from Nanomaga is a submerged reef, marked on the chart as
+the Grand Coral Reef, but known to the natives as Tia Kau, "the reef."
+It is in reality a vast mountain of coral, whose bases lie two hundred
+fathoms deep, with a flattened summit of about fifty acres in extent,
+rising to within five fathoms of the surface of the sea. This spot is
+the resort of incredible numbers of fish, both deep-sea haunting and
+surface swimming. Some of the latter, such as the _pala_ (not the
+_palu_)--a long, scaleless, beautifully-formed fish, with a head of bony
+plates and teeth like a rip-saw--are of great size, and afford splendid
+sport, as they are game fighters and almost as powerful as a porpoise.
+They run to over 100 lbs., and yet are by no means a coarse fish. In the
+shallow water on the top of this mountain reef there are some eight or
+nine varieties of rock cod, none of which were of any great size; but
+far below, at a depth of from fifty to seventy fathoms, there were some
+truly monstrous fish of this species, and I and my missionary friend had
+the luck to catch the four largest ever taken--221 lbs., 208 lbs., 118
+lbs., and 111 lbs. I had caught when fishing for schnapper, in thirty
+fathoms off Camden Haven, on the coast of New South Wales, a mottled
+black and grey rock cod, which weighed 83 lbs., and was assured by the
+Sydney Museum authorities that such a weight for a rock cod was rare in
+that part of the Pacific, but that _beche-de-mer_ fishermen on the Great
+Barrier Reef had occasionally captured fish of the same variety of
+double that size and weight.
+
+Not possessing a boat, we fished from a canoe--a light, but strong and
+beautifully constructed craft, with "whalebacks" fore and aft to keep it
+from being swamped by seas when facing or running from a surf. The
+outrigger was formed of a very light wood, called _pua_, about fourteen
+inches in circumference. With the teacher and myself there usually went
+with us a third man, whose duty it was to keep the canoe head to wind,
+for anchoring in deep water in such a tiny craft was out of the
+question, as well as dangerous, should a heavy fish or a shark get foul
+of the outrigger. Capsizes in the daytime we did not mind, but at night
+numbers of grey sharks were always cruising around, and they were then
+especially savage and daring.
+
+Leaving the pretty little village, which was embowered in a palm grove
+on the lee side of the island, we would, if intending to fish on the Tia
+Kau, make a start before dawn, remain there till the canoe was loaded to
+her raised gunwale pieces with the weight of fish, and then return.
+Night fishing on the Tia Kau by a single canoe was forbidden by the
+_kaupule_ (head men) as being too dangerous on account of the sharks,
+and so usually from ten to twenty canoes set out together. If one did
+come to grief through being swamped, or capsized by having the outrigger
+fouled by a shark, there was always assistance near at hand, and it
+rarely happened that any of the crew were bitten. In 1872, however, a
+fearful tragedy occurred on the Tia Kau, when a party of seventy
+natives--men, women, and children--who were crossing to the neighbouring
+Island of Nanomea, were attacked by sharks when overtaken on the reef by
+a squall at night. Only two escaped to tell the tale.[14]
+
+If, however, we meant to try for _takuo_, a huge variety of the
+mackerel-tribe, or _lahe'u_, a magnificent bream-shaped fish, we had no
+need to go so far as the dangerous Tia Kau; three or four cable-lengths
+from the beach, and right in front of the village, we could lie in water
+as smooth as glass, and seventy fathoms in depth. Our bait was
+invariably flying-fish, freshly caught, or the tentacles of an octopus.
+My lines were of white American cotton, and I generally used two hooks,
+one below and one above the sinker, both baited with a whole
+flying-fish, while my companions preferred wooden or iron hooks, of
+their own manufacture, and lines made from hibiscus bark or coconut
+fibre.
+
+I shall always remember with pleasure my first _lahe'u_. I was
+accompanied by the native teacher alone, and we paddled off from the
+village just after evening service, and brought to about a quarter of a
+mile outside the reef. The rest of the islanders had gone round in
+their canoes to the weather side of the little island to fish for
+_takuo_, for we were expecting a _malaga_, or party of visitors from the
+Island of Nukufetau in a day or two, and unusual supplies of fish had to
+be obtained, to sustain, not only the island's record as the fishing
+centre of the universe, but the people's reputation for hospitality. It
+had been my suggestion to the teacher that he and I, who were unable to
+accompany the others, should try what we could do nearer home. The night
+was brilliantly starlight, and the sea as smooth as glass--so smooth
+that there was not even the faintest swell upon the reef. The trade wind
+was at rest, and not the faintest breath of air moved the foliage of the
+coco palms lining the white strip of beach. Now and then a splash or a
+sudden commotion in the water around us would denote that some hapless
+flying-fish had taken an aerial flight from a pursuing _pala_, or that a
+shark had seized a turtle in his cruel jaws. Lighting our pipes, we
+lowered our lines together according to island etiquette, and touched
+bottom at thirty fathoms; then hauled in a fathom or two of line to
+avoid fouling the coral. In a few minutes my companion hooked an _utu_,
+a sluggish fish, somewhat like a salmon in appearance, with shining
+silvery scales and a broad flat head. As he was hauling in, and I was
+looking over the side of the canoe to watch it coming up, I felt a
+sharp, heavy tug at my own line, and, before I could check it, thirty or
+forty yards of line whizzed through my fingers with lightning speed.
+
+"_Lahe'u!_" shouted the teacher, hurriedly making his own line fast,
+and whipping up his paddle. "Don't give out any more line or he will run
+under the reef, and we shall lose him."
+
+I knew by the vibration and hum of the line as soon as I had it well in
+hand that there was a heavy and powerful fish at the end. Ioane,
+disregarding the _utu_ as being of no importance in comparison to a
+_lahe'u_, was plunging his paddle rapidly into the water, and
+endeavouring to back the canoe seaward into deeper water, but, in spite
+of his efforts and my own, we were being taken quickly inshore. For some
+two or three minutes the canoe was dragged steadily landward, and I knew
+that once the _lahe'u_ succeeded in getting underneath the overhanging
+ledge of reef, there would be but little chance of our taking him except
+by diving, and diving on a moonless night under a reef, and freeing a
+fish from jagged branches of coral, is not a pleasant task, although an
+Ellice Islander does not much mind it. Finding that I could not possibly
+turn the fish, I asked Ioane what I should do. He told me to let go a
+few fathoms of line, brace my knee against the thwart, and then trust to
+the sudden jerk to cant the fish's head one way or the other. I did as I
+was told. Out flew the line, and then came a shock that made the canoe
+fairly jump, lifted the outrigger clear out of the water, and all but
+capsized her. But the ruse was successful, for, with a furious shake,
+_lahe'u_ changed his course, and started off at a tremendous rate,
+parallel with the reef, and then gradually headed seaward.
+
+"Let him go," said Ioane, who was carefully watching the tautened-out
+line, and steering at the same time. "'Tis a strong fish, but he is _man
+tonu_ (truly hooked), and will now tire. But give him no more line, and
+haul up to him."
+
+For fully five minutes the canoe went flying over the water, and I
+continued to haul in line fathom by fathom, until I caught sight of,
+deep down in the water right ahead, a great phosphorescent boil and
+bubble. Then the pace began to slacken, as the gallant fighter began to
+turn from side to side, shaking his head and making futile breaks from
+port to starboard. Bidding me come amidships with the line, Ioane took
+in his paddle, and picked up the harpoon which we always carried on the
+outrigger platform in case of meeting a turtle. Nearer and nearer came
+the great fish, till, with a splash of phosphorescent light and spray,
+he came to the surface, beating the water with his forked and bony tail,
+and still trying to get a chance for another downward run. Then Ioane,
+waiting his opportunity, sent the iron clean through him from side to
+side, and I sat down and watched, with a thrill of satisfaction and a
+sigh of relief, his final flurry. In a few minutes we hauled him
+alongside, drew the harpoon, and with some difficulty managed to get him
+over the side and lower him into the bottom of the canoe amidships,
+where he lay fore and aft, his curved back standing up nearly a foot and
+a half above the raised gunwale. Although not above four feet in length,
+he was nearly three in depth, and about sixteen inches thick at the
+shoulder--a truly noble fish.
+
+"We have done well," said the teacher, with a pleased laugh, as he
+hauled in his own line and dropped a 6-lb. _utu_ into the canoe. "There
+will be much talk over this to-morrow, for these people here are very
+conceited, and think that no one but themselves can catch _lahe'u_ and
+_pala_. They will know better now, when they see this one."
+
+We returned to the shore within two hours from the time we left, with my
+_lahe'u_, an _utu_, and five or six salmon-like fish called _tau-tau_,
+all nocturnal feeders, and all highly thought of by the natives,
+especially the latter. The _lahe'u_ we hung up under the missionary's
+verandah, and at daylight I had the intense satisfaction of seeing a
+crowd of natives surrounding it, and of hearing their flattering
+allusions to myself as a _papalagi masani tonu futi ika_--a white man
+who really could fish like a native.
+
+
+
+
+_On a Tidal River_
+
+
+The English visitor to the Eastern Colonies of Australia who is in
+search of sport with either rod or hand line can always obtain excellent
+fishing in the summer months even in such traffic-disturbed harbours as
+Sydney, Newcastle, and other ports; but on the tidal rivers of the
+eastern and southern seaboard he can, every day, catch more fish than he
+can carry during seven months of the year. In the true winter months
+deep sea fishing is not much favoured, except during the prevalence of
+westerly winds, when, for days at a time, the Pacific is as smooth as a
+lake; but in the rivers, from Mallacoota Inlet, which is a few miles
+over the Victorian boundary, to the Tweed River on the north of New
+South Wales, the stranger may fairly revel not only in the delights of
+splendid fishing but in the charms of beautiful scenery. He needs no
+guide, will be put to but little expense, for the country hotel
+accommodation is good and cheap; and, should he visit some of the
+northern rivers where the towns, or rather small settlements, are few
+and far between, he will find the settlers the embodiment of British
+hospitality.
+
+Some three years ago the writer formed one of the crew of a little
+steamer of fifty tons named the _Jenny Lind_, which was sent out along
+the coast in the endeavour to revive the coast whaling industry. Through
+stress of weather we had frequently to make a dash for shelter, towing
+our sole whaleboat, to one of the many tidal rivers on the coast between
+Sydney and Gabo Island. Here we would remain until the weather broke,
+and our crew would literally cover the deck with an extraordinary
+variety of fish in the course of a few hours. Then, at low tide, we
+could always fill a couple of cornsacks with excellent oysters, and get
+bucketfuls of large prawns by means of a scoop net improvised from a
+piece of mosquito netting; game, too, was very plentiful on the lagoons.
+The settlers were generally glad to see us, and gave us so freely of
+milk, butter, pumpkins, &c., that, despite the rough handling we always
+got at sea from the weather, we grew quite fat. But as the greater part
+of my fishing experience was gained on the northern rivers of the colony
+of N.S. Wales it is of them I shall write.
+
+Eighteen hours' run by steamer from Sydney is the Hastings River, on the
+southern bank of which, a mile from the bar, is the old-time town of
+Port Macquarie, a quaint, sleepy little place of six hundred
+inhabitants, who spend their days in fishing and sleeping and waiting
+for better times. There are two or three fairly good hotels, very pretty
+scenery along the coast and up the river, and a stranger can pass a
+month without suffering from ennui--that is, of course, if he be fond
+of fishing and shooting; if he is not he should avoid going there, for
+it is the dullest coast town in New South Wales. The southern shore,
+from the steamer wharf to opposite the bar, is lined with a hard beach,
+on which at high tide, or slack water at low tide, one may sit down in
+comfort and have great sport with bream, whiting, and flathead. As soon
+as the tide turns, however, and is well on the ebb or flow, further
+fishing is impossible, for the river rushes out to sea with great
+velocity, and the incoming tide is almost as swift. On the other side of
+the harbour is a long, sandy point, called the North Shore, about a mile
+in length. This, at the north end, is met by a somewhat dense scrub,
+which lines the right bank of the river for a couple of miles, and
+affords a splendid shade to any one fishing on the river bank. The outer
+or ocean beach is but a few minutes' walk from the river, and a
+magnificent beach it is, trending in one great unbroken curve to Point
+Plomer, seven miles from the township.
+
+Before ascending the river on a fishing trip one has to provide one's
+self with a plentiful supply of cockles, or "pippies," as they are
+called locally. These can only be obtained on the northern ocean beach,
+and not the least enjoyable part of a day's sport consists in getting
+them. They are triangular in shape, with smooth shells of every
+imaginable colour, though a rich purple is commonest. As the back wash
+leaves the sands bare these bivalves may be seen in thick but irregular
+patches protruding from the sand. Sometimes, if the tide is not low
+enough, one may get rolled over by the surf if he happen to have his
+back turned seaward. Generally I was accompanied by two boys, known as
+"Condon's Twins." They were my landlord's sons, and certainly two of the
+smartest young sportsmen--although only twelve years old--ever met with.
+Both were very small for their age, and I was always in doubt as to
+which was which. They were always delighted to come with me, and did not
+mind being soused by a roller now and then when filling my "pippy" bag.
+Pippies are the best bait one can have for whiting (except prawns) in
+Australia, for, unlike the English whiting, it will not touch fish bait
+of any sort, although, when very hungry, it will sometimes take to
+octopus flesh. Bream (whether black or silvery), flathead, trevally,
+jew-fish, and, indeed, all other fish obtained in Australia, are not so
+dainty, for, although they like "pippies" and prawns best, they will
+take raw meat, fish, or octopus bait with readiness. Certain species of
+sea and river mullet are like them in this respect, and good sport may
+be had from them with a rod in the hot months, as Dick and Fred, the
+twins aforesaid, well knew, for often would their irate father
+wrathfully ask them why they wasted their time catching "them worthless
+mullet."
+
+But let me give an idea of one of many days' fishing on the Hastings,
+spent with the "Twins." Having filled a sugar bag with "pippies" on the
+ocean beach, we put on our boots and make our way through the belt of
+scrub to where our boat is lying, tied to the protruding roots of a
+tree. Each of us is armed with a green stick, and we pick our way pretty
+carefully, for black snakes are plentiful, and to tread on one may mean
+death. The density of the foliage overhead is such that but little
+sunlight can pierce through it, and the ground is soft to our feet with
+the thick carpet of fallen leaves beneath. No sound but the murmuring of
+the sea and the hoarse notes of countless gulls breaks the silence, for
+this side of the river is uninhabited, and its solitude disturbed only
+by some settler who has ridden down the coast to look for straying
+cattle, or by a fishing party from the town. Our boat, which we had
+hauled up and then tied to the tree, is now afloat, for the tide has
+risen, and the long stretches of yellow sandbanks which line the channel
+on the farther side are covered now with a foot of water. As we drift up
+the river, eating our lunch, and letting the boat take care of herself,
+a huge, misshapen thing comes round a low point, emitting horrid
+groanings and wheezings. It is a steam stern-wheel punt, loaded with
+mighty logs of black-butt and tallow wood, from fifty feet to seventy
+feet in length, cut far up the Hastings and the Maria and Wilson Rivers,
+and destined for the sawmill at Port Macquarie.
+
+In another hour we are at our landing-place, a selector's abandoned
+homestead, built of rough slabs, and standing about fifty yards back
+from the river and the narrow line of brown, winding beach. The roof had
+long since fallen in, and the fences and outbuildings lay low, covered
+with vines and creepers. The intense solitude of the place, the
+motionless forest of lofty grey-boled swamp gums that encompassed it on
+all sides but one, and the wide stretch of river before it were
+calculated to inspire melancholy in any one but an ardent fisherman.
+Scarcely have we hauled our boat up on the sand, and deposited our
+provisions and water in the roofless house, when we hear a commotion in
+the river--a swarm of fish called "tailer" are making havoc among a
+"school" of small mullet, many of which fling themselves out upon the
+sand. Presently all is quiet again, and we get our lines ready.
+
+For whiting and silvery bream rather fine lines are used, but we each
+have a heavy line for flathead, for these fish are caught in the tidal
+rivers on a sandy bottom up to three feet and four feet in length. They
+are in colour, both on back and belly, much like a sole, of great width
+across the shoulders, and then taper away to a very fine tail. The head
+is perfectly flat, very thin, and armed on each side with very sharp
+bones pointing tailward; a wound from one of these causes intense
+inflammation. The fins are small--so small as to appear almost
+rudimentary--yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with
+amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the
+shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize
+their prey in their enormous "gripsack" mouths. The approach of a boat
+or a person walking along the sand will cause them to at once speed like
+lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud
+which is washed off their backs in their flight. Still, although not a
+pleasing fish to look at, the flathead is of a delicious and delicate
+flavour. There are some variations in their shades of colour, from a
+pale, delicate grey to a very dark brown, according to their habitat,
+and, although most frequent in very shallow water, they are often caught
+in great quantities off the coast in from ten to fifteen fathoms of
+water. Gut or wire snoodings are indispensable when fishing for
+flathead, else the fish invariably severs the line with his fine
+needle-pointed teeth, which are set very closely together. Nothing comes
+amiss to them as food, but they have a great love for small mullet or
+whiting, or a piece of octopus tentacle.
+
+Baiting our heavy lines with mullet--two hooks with brass-wire snoods to
+each line--we throw out about thirty yards, then, leaving two or three
+fathoms loose upon the shore, we each thrust a stick firmly into the
+sand, and take a turn of the line round it. As the largest flathead
+invariably dart upon the bait, and then make a bolt with it, this plan
+is a good one to follow, unless, of course, they are biting freely; in
+that case the smaller lines for bream and whiting, &c., are hauled in,
+for there is more real sport in landing an 8-lb. flathead than there is
+in catching smaller fish, for he is very game, and fights fiercely for
+his life.
+
+Having disposed our big lines, we bait the smaller ones with "pippies,"
+and not two minutes at the outside elapse after the sinkers have touched
+bottom when we know we are to have a good time, for each of us has
+hooked a fish, and three whiting are kicking on the sand before five
+minutes have expired. Then for another hour we throw out and haul in
+again as quickly as possible, landing whiting from 6 oz. to nearly 2
+lbs. in weight. One of the "Twins" has three hooks on his line, and
+occasionally lands three fish together, and now and again we get small
+bream and an occasional "tailer" of 2 lbs. or 3 lbs. As the sun mounts
+higher the breeze dies away, the heat becomes very great, and we have
+frequent recourse to our water jar--in one case mixing it with whisky.
+Then the whiting cease to bite as suddenly as they have begun, and move
+off into deeper water. Just as we are debating as to whether we shall
+take the boat out into mid-stream, Twin Dick gives a yell as his stick
+is suddenly whipped out of the sand, and the loose line lying beside it
+rushes away into the water. But Dick is an old hand, and lets his fish
+have his first bolt, and then turns him. "By Jingo! sir, he's a big
+fellow," he cries, as he hauls in, the line now as taut as a telegraph
+wire, and then the other twin comes to his aid, and in a few minutes the
+outline of the fish is seen, coming in straight ahead as quick as they
+can pull him. When he is within ten feet of the beach the boys run up
+the bank and land him safely, as he turns his body into a circle in his
+attempts to shake out the hook. Being called upon to estimate his
+weight, I give it as 11 lbs., much to the twins' sorrow--they think it
+15 lbs.
+
+Half an hour passes, and we catch but half a dozen silvery bream and
+some small baby whiting, for now the sun is beating down upon our heads,
+and our naked feet begin to burn and sting, so we adjourn to the old
+house and rest awhile, leaving our big lines securely tied. But, though
+the breeze for which we wait comes along by two o'clock, the fish do
+not, and so, after disinterring our takes from the wet sand wherein we
+had buried them as caught to prevent them being spoilt by the sun, we
+get aboard again and pull across to the opposite bank of the river.
+Here, in much deeper water, about fifteen feet right under the clayey
+bank, we can see hundreds of fine bream, and now and then some small
+jew-fish. Taking off our sinkers, we have as good and more exciting
+sport among the bream than we had with the whiting, catching between
+four and five dozen by six o'clock. Then, after boiling the billy and
+eating some fearfully tough corned meat, we get into the boat again,
+hoist our sail, and land at the little township just after dark.
+
+Such was one of many similar day's sport on the Hastings, which, with
+the Bellinger, the Nambucca, the Macleay, and the Clarence, affords good
+fishing practically all the year round. Then, besides these tidal
+rivers, there are at frequent intervals along the coast tidal lagoons
+and "blind" creeks where fish congregate in really incredible
+quantities. Such places as Lake Illawarra and Lake Macquarie are fishing
+resorts well known to the tourist; but along the northern coast, where
+the population is scantier, and access by rail or steamer more
+difficult, there is an absolutely new field open to the sportsman--in
+fact, these places are seldom visited for either fishing or shooting by
+people from Sydney. During November and December the bars of these
+rivers are literally black with incredible numbers of coarse
+sea-salmon--a fish much like the English sea-bass--which, making their
+way over the bars, swim up the rivers and remain there for about a week.
+Although these fish, which weigh from 6 lbs. to 10 lbs., do not take a
+bait and are rather too coarse to eat, their roes are very good,
+especially when smoked. They are captured with the greatest of ease,
+either by spearing or by the hand; for sometimes they are in such dense
+masses that they are unable to manoeuvre in small bays; and the urchins
+of coastal towns hail their yearly advent with delight. They usually
+make their first appearance about the second week in November, and are
+always followed by a great number of very large sharks and saw-fish,
+which commit dreadful havoc in their serried and helpless ranks.
+Following the sea-salmon, the rivers are next visited in January by
+shoals of very large sea-mullet--blue-black backs, silvery bellies and
+sides, and yellow fins and tails. These, too, will not take a bait, but
+are caught in nets, and, if a steamer happens to be on the eve of
+leaving for Sydney, many hundreds of baskets are sent away; but they
+barely pay the cost of freight and commission, I believe. There are
+several varieties of sea-mullet, one or two of which will take the hook
+freely, and I have often caught them off the rocky coast of New South
+Wales with a rod when the sea has been smooth. The arrival of the big
+sea-mullet denotes that the season for jew-fish is at its height; and if
+the stranger to Australian waters wants exciting sport let him try
+jew-fishing at night. In deep water off the coast these great fish are
+occasionally caught during daylight, but a dull, cloudy night is best,
+when they may be caught from the beach or river bank in shallow water.
+Very stout lines and heavy hooks are used, for a 90-lb. or l00-lb.
+jew-fish is very common. Baiting with a whole mullet or whiting, or one
+of the tentacles of an octopus, the most amateurish fisherman cannot
+fail to hook two or three jew-fish in a night. (Even in Sydney harbour I
+have seen some very large ones caught by people fishing from ferry
+wharves.) They are very powerful, and also very game, and when they rise
+to the surface make a terrific splashing. At one place on the Hastings
+River, called Blackman's Point, a party of four of us took thirteen
+fish, the heaviest of which was 42 lbs. and the lightest 9 lbs. Next
+morning, however, the Blackman's Point ferryman, who always set a line
+from his punt when he turned in, showed us one of over 70 lbs. When they
+grow to such a size as this they are not eaten locally, as the flesh is
+very often full of thin, thread-like worms. The young fish, however, are
+very palatable.
+
+The saw-fish, to which I have before alluded as harrying the swarms of
+sea-salmon, also make havoc with the jew-fish, and very often are caught
+on jew-fish lines. They are terrible customers to get foul of (I do not
+confound them with the sword-fish) when fishing from a small boat. Their
+huge bone bill, set on both sides with its terrible sharp spikes, their
+great length, and enormous strength, render it impossible to even get
+them alongside, and there is no help for it but either to cut the line
+or pull up anchor and land the creature on the shore. Even then the task
+of despatching one of these fish is no child's play on a dark night, for
+they lash their long tails about with such fury that a broken leg might
+be the result of coming too close. In the rivers of Northern Queensland
+the saw-fish attain an enormous size, and the Chinese fishermen about
+Cooktown and Townsville often have their nets destroyed by a saw-fish
+enfolding himself in them. Alligators, by the way, do the same thing
+there, and are sometimes captured, perfectly helpless, in the folds of
+the nets, in which they have rolled themselves over and over again,
+tearing it beyond repair with their feet, but eventually yielding to
+their fate.
+
+The schnapper, the best of all Australian fish, is too well known to
+English visitors to describe in detail. Most town-bred Australians
+generally regard it as a purely ocean-loving fish, or at least only
+frequenting very deep waters in deep harbours, such as Sydney, Jervis
+Bay, and Twofold Bay. This is quite a mistake, for in many of the
+rivers, twenty or more miles up from the sea, the writer and many other
+people have not only caught these beautiful fish, but seen fishermen
+haul in their nets filled with them. But they seldom remain long,
+preferring the blue depths of ocean to the muddy bottoms of tidal
+rivers, for they are rock-haunting and surf-loving.
+
+Of late years the northern bar harbours and rivers of New South Wales
+have been visited by a fish that in my boyhood's days was unknown even
+to the oldest fisherman--the bonito. Although in shape and size they
+exactly resemble the ocean bonito of tropic seas, these new arrivals are
+lighter in colour, with bands of marbled grey along the sides and belly.
+They bite freely at a running bait--_i.e.,_ when a line is towed astern,
+and are very good when eaten quite fresh, but, like all of the mackerel
+tribe, rapidly deteriorate in a few hours after being caught. The
+majority of the coast settlers will not eat them, being under the idea
+that, as they are all but scaleless, they are "poisonous." This silly
+impression also prevails with regard to many other scaleless fish on the
+Australian coast, some of which, such as the trevally, are among the
+best and most delicate in flavour. The black and white rock cod is also
+regarded with aversion by the untutored settlers of the small coast
+settlements, yet these fish are sold in Sydney, like the schnapper, at
+prohibitive prices.
+
+In conclusion, let me advise any one who is contemplating a visit to
+Australia, and means to devote any of his time to either river or sea
+fishing, to take his rods with him; all the rest of his tackle he can
+buy as cheap in the colonies as he can in England. Rods are but little
+used in salt-water fishing in Australia, and are rather expensive. Those
+who do use a rod are usually satisfied with a bamboo--a very good rod
+it makes, too, although inconvenient to carry when travelling--but the
+generality of people use hand lines. And the visitor must not be
+persuaded that he can always get good fishing without going some
+distance from Sydney or Melbourne. That there is some excellent sport to
+be obtained in Port Jackson in summer is true, but it is lacking in a
+very essential thing--the quietude that is dear to the heart of every
+true fisherman.
+
+
+
+
+_Denison Gets Another Ship_
+
+
+Owing to reduced circumstances, and a growing hatred of the hardships of
+the sea, young Tom Denison (ex-supercargo of the South Sea Island
+trading schooner _Palestine_) had sailed from Sydney to undertake the
+management of an alleged duck-farm in North Queensland. The ducks, and
+the vast area of desolation in which they suffered a brief existence,
+were the property of a Cooktown bank, the manager of which was Denison's
+brother. He was a kind-hearted man, who wanted to help Tom along in the
+world, and, therefore, was grieved when at the end of three weeks the
+latter came into Cooktown humping his swag, smoking a clay pipe, and
+looking exceedingly tired, dirty, and disreputable generally. However,
+all might have gone well even then had not Mrs. Aubrey Denison, the
+brother's wife, unduly interfered and lectured Tom on his "idle and
+dissolute life," as she called it, and made withering remarks about the
+low tastes of sailors other than captains of mail steamers or officers
+in the Navy. Tom, who intended to borrow L10 from his brother to pay his
+passage back to Sydney to look for a ship, bore it all in silence, and
+then said that he should like to give up the sea and become a
+missionary in the South Seas, where he was "well acquainted with the
+natives."
+
+Mrs. Aubrey (who was a very refined young lady) smiled contemptuously,
+and turned down the corners of her pretty little mouth in a manner that
+made the unsuccessful duck-farmer boil with suppressed fury, as she
+remarked that _she_ had heard of some of the shocking stories he had
+been telling the accountant and cashier of the _characters_ of the
+people in the South Seas, and _she_ quite understood _why_ he wished to
+return there and re-associate with his vulgar and wicked companions.
+Now, she added, had he stuck bravely to work with the ducks, the Bank
+(she uttered the word "Bank" in the tone of reverence as one would say
+"The Almighty") would have watched his career with interest, and in time
+his brother would have used his influence with the General Manager to
+obtain a position for him, Tom Denison, in the Bank itself! But, judging
+from _her_ knowledge of his (Tom's) habits and disposition, she would be
+doing wrong to hold out the slightest hope for him now, and------
+
+"Look here, Maud, you're only twenty-two--two years older than me, and
+you talk like an old grandmother;" and then his wrath overpowered his
+judgment--"and you'll look like one before you're twenty-five. Don't you
+lecture _me_. I'm not your husband, _thank Heaven above_! And damn the
+bank and its carmine ducks." (He did not say "carmine," but I study the
+proprieties, and this is not a sanguinary story.)
+
+From the weatherboard portals of the bank Tom strode out in undisguised
+anger, and obtained employment on a collier, discharging coals. Then, by
+an extraordinary piece of good luck, he got a billet as proof-reader on
+the North Queensland _Trumpet Call_, from which, after an exciting three
+weeks, he was dismissed for "general incompetency and wilful neglect of
+his duties." So with sorrow in his heart he had turned to the
+ever-resourceful sea again for a living. He worked his passage down to
+Sydney in an old, heart-broken, wheezing steamer named the _You Yangs_,
+and stepped jauntily ashore with sixteen shillings in his pocket, some
+little personal luggage rolled up in his blanket, and an unlimited
+confidence in his own luck.
+
+Two vessels were due from the South Sea Islands in about a month, and as
+the skippers were both well known to and were on friendly terms with
+him, he felt pretty certain of getting a berth as second mate or
+supercargo on one of them. Then he went to look for a quiet lodging.
+
+This was soon found, and then realising the fact that sixteen shillings
+would not permit him viewing the sights of Sydney and calling upon the
+Governor, as is the usual procedure with intellectual and dead-broke
+Englishmen who come to Australia with letters of introduction from
+people who are anxious to get rid of them, he tried to get temporary
+employment by applying personally at the leading warehouses and
+merchants' offices. The first day he failed; also the second. On the
+third day the secretary of a milk company desired him to call again in
+three days. He did, and was then told by the manager that he "might
+have something" for him in a month or two. This annoyed Tom, as he had
+put on his sole clean collar that morning to produce a good impression.
+He asked the official if six months would not suit him better, as he
+wanted to go away on a lengthy fishing trip with the Attorney-General.
+The manager looked at him in a dignified manner, and then bade him an
+abrupt good-day.
+
+A week passed. Funds were getting low. Eight shillings had been paid in
+advance for his room, and he had spent five in meals. But he was not
+despondent; the _Susannah Booth_, dear, comfortable old wave-puncher,
+beloved of hard-up supercargoes, was due in a week, and, provided he
+could inspire his landlady with confidence until then, all would be
+well.
+
+But the day came when he had to spend his last shilling, and after a
+fruitless endeavour to get a job on the wharves to drive one of the many
+steam winches at work discharging cargo from the various ships, he
+returned home in disgust.
+
+That night, as he sat cogitating in his bedroom over his lucklessness,
+his eye fell on a vegetable monstrosity from Queensland, presented to
+him by one of the hands on board the _You Yangs_. It was a huge, dried
+bean-pod, about four feet long, and contained about a dozen large black
+beans, each about the size of a watch. He had seen these beans, after
+the kernels were scooped out, mounted with silver, and used as
+match-boxes by bushmen and other Australian gentry. It at once occurred
+to him that he might sell it. Surely the thing ought to be worth at
+least five shillings.
+
+In two minutes he was out in the street, but to his disgust found most
+of the shops closed, except the very small retail establishments.
+
+Entering a little grocery store, he approached the proprietor, a man
+with a pale, gargoyle-like face, and unpleasant-looking, raggedy teeth,
+and showing him the bean, asked him to buy it.
+
+The merchant looked at it with some interest and asked Tom what it was
+called.
+
+Tom said it was a _Locomotor Ataxy_. (He didn't know what a _locomotor
+ataxy_ was; but it sounded well, and was all the Latin he knew, having
+heard from his mother that a dissolute brother of hers had been
+afflicted with that complaint, superinduced by spirituous liquors.)
+
+The grocer-man turned the vegetable over and over again in his hand, and
+then asked the would-be vendor if he had any more. Tom said he hadn't.
+The _locomotor ataxy_, he remarked, was a very rare bean, and very
+valuable. But he would sell it cheap--for five shillings.
+
+"Don't want it," said the man rudely, pushing it away contemptuously.
+"It's only a faked-up thing anyway, made of paper-mashy."
+
+Tom tried to convince him that the thing was perfectly genuine, and
+actually grew on a vine in North Queensland; but the Notre Dame
+gargoyle-featured person only heard him with a snort of contempt. It was
+obvious he wouldn't buy it. So, sneeringly observing to the grocer that
+no doubt five shillings was a large sum for a man in such a small way of
+business as he was, Tom went out again into the cold world.
+
+He tried several other places, but no one would even look at the thing.
+After vainly tramping about for over two hours, he turned away towards
+his lodging, feeling very dispirited, and thinking about breakfast.
+
+Turning up a side street called Queen's Place, so as to make a short cut
+home, he espied in a dimly-lighted little shop an old man and a boy
+working at the cobbler trade. They had honest, intelligent faces, and
+looked as if they wanted to buy a _locomotor ataxy_ very badly. He
+tapped at the door and then entered.
+
+"Would you like to buy this?" he said to the old man. He did not like to
+repeat his foolish Latin nonsense, for the old fellow had such a worn,
+kindly face, and his honest, searching eyes met his in such a way that
+he felt ashamed to ask him to buy what could only be worthless rubbish
+to him.
+
+The cobbler looked at the monstrosity wonderingly. "'Tis a rare big
+bean," he said, in the trembling quaver of old age, and with a mumbling
+laugh like that of a pleased child. "I'll give you two shillin's for it.
+I suppose you want money badly, or else you wouldn't be wanderin' about
+at ten o'clock at night tryin' to sell it. I hope you come by it honest,
+young man?"
+
+Tom satisfied him on this score, and then the ancient gave him the two
+shillings. Bidding him good-night, Tom returned home and went to bed.
+
+(Quite two years after, when Denison returned to Sydney from the South
+Seas with more money "than was good for his moral welfare," as his
+sister-in-law remarked, he sought out the old cobbler gentleman and
+bought back his _locomotor ataxy_ bean for as many sovereigns as he had
+been given shillings for it.)
+
+Next morning he was down at the wharves before six o'clock, smoking his
+pipe contentedly, after breakfasting sumptuously at a coffee-stall for
+sixpence. There was a little American barque lying alongside the
+Circular Quay, and some of the hands were bending on her head-sails. Tom
+sat down on the wharf stringer dangling his feet and watching them
+intently. Presently the mate appeared on the poop, smoking a cigar. He
+looked at Tom critically for a moment or so, and then said--
+
+"Looking for a ship, young feller?"
+
+The moment Tom heard him speak, he jumped to his feet, for he knew the
+voice, last heard when the possessor of it was mate of the island
+trading schooner _Sadie Caller_, a year before in Samoa.
+
+"Is that you, Bannister?" he cried.
+
+"Reckon 'taint no one else, young feller. Why, Tom Denison, is it you?
+Step right aboard."
+
+Tom was on the poop in an instant, the mate coming to him with
+outstretched hand.
+
+"What's the matter, Tom? Broke?"
+
+"Stony!"
+
+"Sit down here and tell me all about it. I heard you had left the
+_Palestine_. Say, sling that dirty old pipe overboard, and take one of
+these cigars. The skipper will be on deck presently, and the sight of it
+would rile him terrible. He hez his new wife aboard, and she considers
+pipes ez low-down."
+
+Tom laughed as he thought of Mrs. Aubrey, and flung his clay over the
+side. "What ship is this, Bannister?"
+
+"The _J.W. Seaver_, of 'Frisco. We're from the Gilbert Islands with a
+cargo of copra."
+
+"Who is your supercargo?"
+
+"Haven't got one. Can't get one here, either. Say, Tom, you're the man.
+The captain will jump at getting you! Since he married he considers his
+life too valuable to be trusted among natives, and funks at going ashore
+and doing supercargo's work. Now you come below, and I'll rake out
+enough money to get you a high-class suit of store clothes and shiny
+boots. Then you come back to dinner. I'll talk to him between then and
+now. He knows a lot about you. I'll tell him that since you left the
+_Palestine_ you've been touring your native country to 'expand your
+mind.' _She's_ Boston, as ugly as a brown stone jug, and highly
+intellectual. _He's_ all right, and as good a sailor-man as ever trod a
+deck, but _she's_ boss, runs the ship, and looks after the crew's
+morals. Thet's why we're short-handed. But she'll take to you like
+lightning--when she hears that you've been 'expanding your mind.' Buy a
+second-hand copy of Longfellow's, poems, and tell her that it has been
+your constant companion in all your wanderings among vicious cannibals,
+and she'll just decorate your cabin like a prima-donna's boudoir, darn
+your socks, and make you read some of her own poetry."
+
+That afternoon, Mr. Thomas Denison, clean-shirted and looking eminently
+respectable and prosperous, and feeling once more a man after the
+degrading duck episode in North Queensland, was strolling about George
+Street with Bannister, and at peace with the world and himself. For the
+skipper's wife had been impressed with his intellectuality and modest
+demeanour, and was already at work decorating his cabin--as Bannister
+had prophesied.
+
+
+
+
+_Jack Shark's Pilot_
+
+
+Early one morning as we in the _Palestine_, South Sea trading schooner,
+were sailing slowly between Fotuna and Alofa--two islands lying to the
+northward of Fiji--one of the native hands came aft and reported two
+large sharks alongside. The mate at once dived below for his shark hook,
+while I tried to find a suitable bit of beef in the harness cask. Just
+as the mate appeared carrying the heavy hook and chain, our skipper, who
+was lying on the skylight smoking his pipe, although half asleep,
+inquired if there were "any pilot fish with the brutes."
+
+"Yes, sir," said a sailor who was standing in the waist, looking over
+the side, "there's quite a lot of 'em. I've never seen so many at one
+time before. There's nigh on a dozen."
+
+The captain was on his feet in an instant. "Don't lower that hook of
+yours just yet, Porter," he said to the mate. "I'm going to get those
+pilot fish first. Tom, bring me up my small fishing line."
+
+"They won't take a hook, will they?" I inquired.
+
+"Just you wait and see, sonny. Ever taste pilot fish?"
+
+"No. Are they good to eat?"
+
+"Best fish in the ocean, barring flying-fish," replied the skipper, as,
+after examining his line, he cut off both hook and leaden sinker and
+bent on a small-sized _pa_--a native-made bonito hook cut out from a
+solid piece of pearl-shell.
+
+Then jumping up into the whaleboat which hung in davits on the starboard
+quarter he waited for the sharks to appear, and the mate and I leant
+over the side and watched. We had not long to wait, for in a few minutes
+one came swimming quickly up from astern, and was almost immediately
+joined by the other, which had been hanging about amidships. They were
+both, however, pretty deep down, and at first I could not discern any
+pilot fish. The captain, however, made a cast and the hook dropped in
+the water, about fifty feet in the rear of the sharks; he let it sink
+for less than half a minute, and then began hauling in the line as
+quickly as possible, and at the same moment I saw some of the pilot fish
+quite distinctly--some swimming alongside and some just ahead of their
+detestable companions, which were now right under the counter. Then
+something gleamed brightly, and the shining hook appeared, for a second
+or two only, for two of the "pilots" darted after it with lightning-like
+rapidity, and presently one came to the surface with a splash,
+beautifully hooked, and was swung up into the boat.
+
+"Now for some fun," cried the captain, as tossing the fish to us on deck
+he again lowered the hook. This time it had barely touched the surface
+of the water when away went the line with a rush right under our keel.
+
+"This is a big fellow," said the skipper, and up came another dark blue
+and silver beauty about a foot in length, dropping off the hook just in
+time as he was hoisted clear of the gunwale. Then, in less than ten
+minutes--so eager were they to rush the hook the moment it struck the
+water--five more were jumping about upon the deck or in the boat. Then
+came a calamity, the eighth fish dropped off when half way up and took
+the hook with him, having swallowed it and bitten through the line.
+
+The captain jumped on deck again and began rooting out his bag for
+another small-sized _pa_, but to his disgust could not find one ready
+for use--none of them having the actual "hook" portion lashed to the
+shank, and the operation of lashing one of these cleverly-made native
+hooks takes some little time and patience, for the holes which are bored
+through the base of the "hook" part in order to lash it to the shank are
+very small, and only very fine and strong cord, such as banana-fibre,
+can be used. However, while the irate captain was fussing over his task,
+the mate and I were watching the movements of the sharks and their
+little friends with the greatest interest, having promised the captain
+not to lower the shark hook till he had caught the rest of the pilot
+fish, for he assured us that they would most likely disappear after the
+sharks were captured. (I learned from my own experience afterward that
+he was mistaken, for when a shark is caught at sea his attendants will
+frequently remain with the ship for weeks, or until another shark
+appears, in which case they at once attach themselves to him.)
+
+Both sharks were now swimming almost on the surface, so close to the
+ship that they could have been caught in a running bowline or harpooned
+with the greatest ease; and in fact our native crew, who were very
+partial to shark's flesh, had both harpoon and bowline in readiness in
+case the cunning brutes would not take a bait. They were both of great
+size--the largest being over twelve or thirteen feet in length. With the
+smaller one were three pilot fish, one swimming directly under the end
+of its nose, the others just over its eyes; the larger had but one
+attendant, which kept continually changing its position, sometimes being
+on one side, then on another, then disappearing for a few moments
+underneath the monster's belly, or pressing itself so closely against
+the creature's side that it appeared as if it was adhering to it. I had
+never before seen these fish at such close quarters, and their
+extraordinary activity and seeming attachment to their savage companions
+was most astonishing to witness; occasionally when either of the sharks
+would cease moving, they would take up a position within a few inches of
+its jaws, remain there a few seconds, and then swim under its belly and
+reappear at the tail, then slowly make their way along its back or sides
+to the hideous head again. Sometimes, either singly or all together,
+they would dart away on either side, but quickly returned, never being
+absent more than a minute. These brief excursions showed them to be
+extremely swift, yet when they returned to their huge companions they
+instantly became--at least to all appearance--intensely sluggish and
+languid in their movements, and swam in an undecided, indefinite sort of
+manner as if thoroughly exhausted. But this was but in appearance, for
+suddenly they would again shoot away along the surface of the water with
+lightning-like rapidity, disappear from view of the keenest eye, and,
+ere you could count five, again be beside the vessel swimming as
+leisurely, if not as lazily, as if they were incapable of quickening
+their speed.
+
+Having his line ready again, the captain now began fishing from the
+stern, and succeeded in catching three of the remaining four, the last
+one (which our natives said was the fish which had swallowed the first
+hook) refusing even to look at the tempting bit of iridescent
+pearl-shell. Then the impatient mate lowered his bait over the stern,
+having first passed the line outboard and given the end to three or four
+of the crew, who stood in the waist ready to haul in. The smaller of the
+two sharks was at once hooked, and when dragged up alongside amidships
+struggled and lashed about so furiously that the big fellow came
+lumbering up to see what was the matter, and Billy Rotumah, our native
+boatswain, who was watching for him, promptly drove a harpoon socket
+deeply into him between the shoulders; then, after some difficulty, a
+couple of running bowlines settled them both in a comfortable position
+to be stunned with an axe.
+
+The schooner was at this time within a few miles of a small village on
+Alofa, named Mua, and presently a boat manned by natives boarded us to
+sell yams, taro, pineapples, and bananas, all of which we bought from
+them in exchange for the sharks' livers and some huge pieces of flesh
+weighing two or three hundred pounds. These people (who resemble the
+Samoans in appearance and language) were much impressed and terrified
+when they saw the pilot fish which had been caught, and told our crew
+that ours would be an unlucky ship--that we had done a dangerous and
+foolish thing. Their feeling on the subject was strong; for when I asked
+them if they would take two or three of the fish on shore to Father
+Herve, one of the French priests living on Fotuna, who was an old
+friend, they started back in mingled terror and indignation, and
+absolutely declined to even touch them. Taking one of the pilot fish up
+I held it by the head between my forefinger and thumb and asked the
+natives if they did not consider it good to look at.
+
+"True," replied a fine, stalwart young fellow, speaking in Samoan, "it
+is good to look at," and then he added gravely, "_Talofa lava ia te
+outou i le vaa nei, ua lata mai ne aso malaia ma le tiga|_" ("Alas for
+all you people on this ship, there is a day of disaster and sorrow near
+you").
+
+I tried to ascertain the cause of their terror, but could only elicit
+the statement that to kill a pilot fish meant direful misfortune. No
+sensible man, they asserted, would do such a senseless and _saua_
+(cruel) thing, and to eat one was an abomination unutterable.
+
+As soon as our visitors had left I hurried to make a closer examination
+of our prizes before the cook took possession of them. Of the eleven,
+only one was over a foot in length, the rest ranged from five to ten
+inches. The beautiful dark blue of the head and along the back, so
+noticeable when first caught, had now lost its brilliancy, and the four
+wide vertical black stripes on the sides had also become dulled,
+although the silvery belly was still as bright as a new dollar. The eyes
+were rather large for such a small fish, and all the fins were
+blue-black, with a narrow white line running along the edges. Their
+appearance even an hour after death was very handsome, and in shape they
+were much like a very plump trout. In the stomachs of some we found
+small flying squid, little shrimps, and other Crustacea.
+
+Our Manila-man cook, although not a genius, certainly knew how to fry
+fish, and that morning we had for breakfast some of Jack Shark's
+pilots--the most delicately-flavoured deep-sea fish I have ever
+tasted--except, perhaps, that wonderful and beautiful creature, the
+flying-fish.
+
+
+
+
+_The "Palu" of the Equatorial Pacific_
+
+
+During a residence of half a lifetime among the various island-groups of
+the North-western and South Pacific, I devoted much of my spare
+time--and I had plenty of it occasionally--to deep-sea fishing, my
+tutors being the natives of the Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice
+Groups.
+
+The inhabitants of the last-named cluster of islands are, as I have
+said, the most skilled fishermen of all the Malayo-Polynesian peoples
+with whom it has been my fortune to have come in contact. The very
+poverty of their island homes--mere sandbanks covered with coconut and
+pandanus palms only--drives them to the sea for their food; for the
+Ellice Islanders, unlike their more fortunate prototypes who dwell in
+the forest-clad, mountainous, and fertile islands of Samoa, Tahiti,
+Raratonga, &c., live almost exclusively upon coconuts, the drupes of the
+pandanus palm, and fish. From their very infancy they look to the sea as
+the main source of their food-supply, either in the clear waters of the
+lagoon, among the breaking surf on the reef, or out in the blue depths
+of the ocean beyond. From morn till night the frail canoes of these
+semi-nude, brown-skinned, and fearless toilers of the sea may be seen by
+the voyager paddling swiftly over the rolling swell of the wide Pacific
+in chase of the _bonito_, or lying motionless upon the water, miles and
+miles away from the land, ground-fishing with lines a hundred fathoms
+long. Then, as the sun dips, the flare of torches will be seen along the
+sandy beaches as the night-seekers of flying-fish launch their canoes
+and urge them through the rolling surf beyond the reef, where, for
+perhaps three or four hours, they will paddle slowly to and fro, just
+outside the white line of roaring breakers, and return to the shore with
+their tiny craft half-filled with the most beautiful and wonderful fish
+in the world. The Ellice Island method of catching flying-fish would
+take too long to explain here, much as I should like to do so; my
+purpose is to describe a very remarkable fish called the _palu_, in the
+capture of which these people are the most skilful. The catching of
+flying-fish, however, bears somewhat on the subject of this article, as
+the _palu_ will not take any other bait but a flying-fish, and therefore
+a supply of the former is a necessary preliminary to _palu_ fishing.
+
+Let us imagine, then, that the bait has been secured, and that a party
+of _palu_-fishers are ready to set out from the little island of
+Nanomaga, the smallest but most thickly populated of the Ellice Group.
+The night must be windless and moonless, the latter condition being
+absolutely indispensable, although, curiously enough, the fish will
+take the hook on an ordinary starlight night. Time after time have I
+tried my luck with either a growing or a waning moon, much to the
+amusement of the natives, and never once did I get a _palu_, although
+other nocturnal-feeding fish bit freely enough.
+
+The tackle used by the natives is made of coconut cinnet, four or
+eight-stranded, of great strength, and capable of holding a fifteen-foot
+shark should one of these prowlers seize the bait. The hook is made of
+wood--in fact, the same as is used for shark-fishing--about one inch and
+a half in diameter, fourteen inches in the shank, with a natural curve;
+the barb, or rather that which answers the purpose of a barb, being
+supplied by a small piece lashed horizontally across the top of the end
+of the curve. These peculiar wooden hooks are _grown_; the roots of a
+tree called _ngiia_, whose wood is of great toughness, are watched when
+they protrude from a bank, and trained into the desired shape; specimens
+of these hooks may be seen in almost any ethnographical museum. To sink
+the line, coral stones of three or four pounds weight are used, attached
+by a very thin piece of cinnet or bark, which, when the fish is struck,
+is always broken by its struggles, and falls off, thus releasing the
+line from an unnecessary weight. It is no light task hauling in a thick,
+heavy line, hanging straight up and down for a length of from
+seventy-five to a hundred fathoms or more!
+
+Each canoe is manned by four men, only two of whom usually fish, the
+other two, one at the bow and the other at the stern, being employed in
+keeping the little craft in a stationary position with their paddles.
+If, however, there is not much current all four lower their lines, one
+man working his paddle with one hand so as to keep from drifting. My
+usual companions were the resident native teacher and two stalwart young
+natives of the island--Tulu'ao and Muli'ao; and I may here indulge in a
+little vanity when I say that my success as a _palu_-fisher was regarded
+as something phenomenal, only one other white man in the group, a trader
+on the atoll of Funafuti, having ever caught a _palu_, or, in fact,
+tried to catch one. But then I had such beautiful tackle that even the
+most skilled native fisherman had no chance when competing with me. My
+lines were of twenty-seven-strand white American cotton, as thick as a
+small goose-quill, and easily handled, never tangling or twisting like
+the native cinnet; and my hooks were the admiration and envy of all who
+saw them. They were of the "flatted" Kirby type, eyed, but with a curve
+in the shank, which was five inches in length, and as thick as a
+lead-pencil. I had bought these in Sydney, and during the voyage down
+had rigged them with snoodings of the very best seizing wire, intending
+to use them for shark-fishing. I had smaller ones down to three inches,
+but always preferred using the largest size, as the _palu_ has a large
+mouth, and it is a difficult matter in a small canoe on a dark night to
+free a hook embedded in the gullet of a fish which is awkward to handle
+even when exhausted, and weighing as much as sixty or seventy pounds;
+while I also knew that any unusual noise or commotion would be almost
+sure to attract some of those most dangerous of all night-prowlers of
+the Pacific, the deep-water blue shark.
+
+Paddling out due westward from the lee side of the island, where the one
+village is situated, we would bring-to in about seventy or eighty
+fathoms. As I always used leaden sinkers, my companions invariably let
+me lower first to test the depth, as with a two or three-pound lead my
+comparatively thin line took but little time in running out and touching
+bottom. A whole flying-fish was used for one bait by the natives, it
+being tied on to the inner curve of the great wooden hook, whilst I cut
+one in half, fore-and-aft, and ran my hook through it lengthwise.
+
+The utmost silence was always observed; and even when lighting our pipes
+we were always careful not to let the reflection of the flame of the
+match fall upon the water, on account of the sharks, which would at once
+be attracted to the canoe, and hover about until they were rewarded for
+their vigilance by seizing the first _palu_ brought to the surface.
+Sometimes a hungry shark will seize the outrigger in his jaws, or get
+foul of it, and upset the canoe, and a capsize under such circumstances
+is a serious matter indeed. For this reason the canoes are never far
+apart from each other; if one should be attacked or disabled by a shark
+the others at once render assistance, and the shark is usually thrust
+through with a lance if he is too big to be captured and killed. All
+haste is then made to get away from the spot, leaving the disturber of
+the proceedings to be devoured by his companions, whom the scent of
+blood soon brings upon the scene.
+
+With ordinary luck we would get our first _palu_ within an hour of
+lowering our lines. At such a great depth as eighty or ninety fathoms a
+bite would scarcely be felt by one of my companions on his thick, heavy,
+and clumsy line; but on mine it was very different, and there was hardly
+an occasion on which I did not secure the first fish. Like most
+bottom-haunting fish in very deep water the _palu_ makes but a brief
+fight. If he can succeed in "getting his head," he will at once rush
+into the coral forest amid which he lives, and endeavour to save himself
+by jamming his body into a cleft or chasm of rock, and let the hook be
+torn from his jaws, which are soft, boneless, and glutinous. Once,
+however, he is dragged clear of the coral he seems to lose all heart;
+and, although he makes an occasional spurt, he grows weaker and weaker
+as he is dragged toward the surface, and when lifted into the canoe is
+apparently lifeless, his large eyes literally standing out of his head,
+and his stomach distended like a balloon. So enormous is the distention
+of the bladder that sometimes it will protrude from the mouth, and then
+burst with a noise like a pistol-shot! Perhaps some of my readers will
+smile at this, but they could see the same thing occur with other
+deep-sea fish besides the _palu_. In the Caroline and Marshall Islands
+there is a species of grey groper which is caught in a depth ranging
+from one hundred to one hundred and fifty fathoms; these fish, which
+range up to two hundred pounds, actually burst their stomachs when
+brought to the surface; for the air in the cavities of the body expands
+on the removal of the great pressure which at such depths keeps it
+compressed.
+
+Now as to the appearance of the _palu_. When first caught, and seen by
+the light of a lantern or torch, it is a dark, silvery grey in colour,
+with prickly, inverted scales--like the feathers of a French fowl of a
+certain breed. The head is somewhat cod-shaped, with eyes quite as large
+as a crown-piece; the teeth are many, small, and soft, and bend to a
+firm pressure; and the bones in the fin and tail are so soft and
+flexible that they may be bent into any shape, but when dried are of the
+appearance and consistency of gelatine. The length of the largest _palu_
+I have seen was five feet six inches, with a girth of about forty
+inches. This one was caught in about ninety fathoms of water; and when I
+opened the stomach I found it to contain five or six undigested fish,
+about seven inches in length, of the groper species, and for which the
+natives of the island had no name or knowledge of beyond the appellation
+_ika kehe_--"unknown fish"--that is, fish which are only seen when taken
+from the stomach of a deep-sea fish, or are brought to the surface or
+washed ashore after some submarine disturbance.
+
+The flesh of the _palu_ is greatly valued by the natives of the
+equatorial islands of the Pacific for its medicinal qualities as a
+laxative, whilst the oil with which it is permeated is much used as a
+remedy for rheumatism and similar complaints. Within half an hour of its
+being taken from the water the skin changes to a dead black, and the
+flesh assumes the appearance of whale blubber. Generally, the fish is
+cooked in the usual native ground-oven as quickly as possible, care
+being taken to wrap it closely up in the broad leaves of the _puraka_
+plant--a species of gigantic taro--in order that none of the oil may be
+lost. Thinking that the oil, which is perfectly colourless and with
+scarcely any odour, might prove of value, I once "tried out" two of the
+largest fish taken, and obtained a gallon. This I sent to a firm of
+drug-merchants in Sydney; but unfortunately the vessel was lost on the
+passage.
+
+The _palu_ does not seem to have a wide habitat. In the Tonga Islands it
+is, I believe, very rare; and in Fiji, Samoa, and other mountainous
+groups throughout Polynesia the natives appear to have no knowledge of
+it, although they have a fish possessing the same peculiar
+characteristics, but of a somewhat different shape. I have fished for it
+without success at half a dozen places in Samoa, in New Britain, and New
+Ireland. But it is generally to be found about the coasts of any of the
+low-lying coral islands of the Union (or Tokelau) Group, the Ellice,
+Gilbert, Marshall, and part of the Caroline archipelagoes. The Gilbert
+Islanders call it _te ika ne peka_--a name that cannot well be
+translated into bald English, though there is a very lucid Latin
+equivalent.
+
+In 1882 I took passage from the Island of Nukufetau in the Ellice Group
+for the Caroline Islands. The vessel was a fine brigantine of 160 tons,
+and was named the _Orwell_. She was, unfortunately, commanded by an
+incompetent, obstinate, self-willed man, who, though a good seaman, had
+no meteorological knowledge and succeeded in losing the ship, when lying
+at anchor, on Peru Island, in the Gilbert Group, ten days after leaving
+Nukufetau, simply through disregarding the local trader's advice to put
+to sea. Disastrous as was the incident to me, for I lost trade goods and
+personal effects to the value of over a thousand pounds, and came ashore
+with what I stood in--to wit, a pyjama suit--and a bag of Chili dollars,
+I had reason to afterwards congratulate myself from a fisherman's point
+of view.
+
+Living on the island was a Swiss, Frank Voliero, whom I have before
+mentioned. He was an ardent deep-sea fisherman, and was on that account
+highly respected by the natives, who otherwise did not care for him, as
+he was of an exceedingly quarrelsome disposition. He was an expert
+_palu_ man, and he and I therefore quickly made Island _bruderschaft_.
+During the three months I remained on Peru we had many fishing trips,
+and caught not less than fifty _palu_. The largest of these was
+evidently a patriarch, for although he was in rather poor condition he
+weighed 136 lbs. and was 6 feet 10 inches in length. Another, hooked at
+a depth of eighty-five fathoms, was only 5 feet 2 inches, and weighed
+129 lbs. Its stomach contained a small octopus with curiously stunted
+tentacles, almost as thick at the tips as they were at the base, but in
+all other respects similar to those found in shallow water upon the
+reefs and in the lagoon.
+
+Both Voliero and myself tried many kinds of bait for _palu,_ believing
+that the native theory that the fish would only take flying-fish was
+wrong. We found that on Peru, any elongated fish, such as gars, silvery
+mullet, or young bonito, were acceptable, and that the tentacle of an
+octopus, after the outer skin was removed, answered just as well. Yet
+further southward among the Pacific Isles, flying-fish is the only bait
+they will take! Evidently, therefore, the _palu_, at the great depths in
+which it lives, is attracted by a brightly-hued fish whose habitat is on
+the surface of the ocean. Why this is so must be decided by
+ichthyologists, for there are no bright, silvery-scaled fish inhabiting
+the ocean at such depths as eighty or a hundred fathoms. And why is it
+that the _palu,_ quiescent by day, and feeding only at night, so eagerly
+seizes a hook baited with a flying-fish--a fish which never descends
+more than a few fathoms below the surface, and which the _palu_ can
+never possibly see except when it is lowered by human hands to, or sinks
+to the bottom?
+
+Of the marvellous efficacy of the _palu_-oil in a case of acute
+rheumatism I can speak with knowledge. The second mate of an
+island-trading schooner of which I was the supercargo, was landed at
+Arorai, in the Line Islands, unable to move, and suffering great agony.
+After two days' massaging with _palu_-oil he recovered and returned to
+his duties.
+
+[Since this was written I have learned that Mr. E.R. Waite, of the
+Sydney Museum, has described the _palu_ as the _Ruvettus pretiosus_,
+"which hitherto was known only from the North Atlantic, and whose
+recorded range is now enormously increased. The Escolar--to give it its
+Atlantic name--has been taken at depths as great as three and four
+hundred fathoms, but can only be taken at night in September and the
+early part of October." I should very much like to learn how the _palu_
+is taken at a depth of four hundred fathoms--eight hundred yards!]
+
+
+
+
+_The Wily "Goanner"_
+
+
+In the early part of the year 1899 a settler named Hardy, residing at
+Glenowlan, in the Rylstone district of New South Wales, about 150 miles
+from Sydney, lost numbers of his lambs during the lambing season.
+Naturally enough, dingoes were suspected, but none were seen. Then other
+sheep--men began to lose lambs, and a close watch was set, with the
+result that iguanas, which are very numerous in this part of the
+country, were discovered to be the murderers of the little "baa-baa's."
+The cause of this new departure in the predatory habits of the
+"goanner"--which hitherto had confined his evil deeds to nocturnal
+visits to the fowl-yards--is stated to be the extermination of the
+opossum, which has driven the cunning reptile to seek for another source
+of food. And, as before the shooting of kangaroos, wallabies, and
+opossums was resorted to as a means of livelihood by hundreds of bushmen
+who had no other employment open to them, the young of these marsupials
+furnished the iguana with an ample supply of food, the theory is very
+probably correct. Poison will be the only method of destroying or
+reducing the numbers of the iguana, who, robber as he is, yet has his
+good points, as has even the sneaking, blood-loving native cat--for both
+are merciless foes to snakes of all kinds; and 'tis better to have an
+energetic and hungry native cat and a score of wily iguanas working
+havoc among the tenants of your fowl-house than one brown or an equally
+deadly "bandy-bandy" snake within half a mile.
+
+In that part of New South Wales in which the writer was born--one of the
+tidal rivers on the northern coast--both snakes and iguanas were
+plentiful, and a source of continual worry to the settlers.
+
+On one occasion some boyish companions and myself set to work to build a
+raft for fishing purposes out of some old and discarded blue gum rails
+which were lying along the bank of the river. Boy-like, we utterly
+disregarded our parents' admonition to put on our boots, and, aided by a
+couple of blackfellows, we moved about the long grass on our bare feet,
+picking up the heavy rails and carrying them on our shoulders, one by
+one, down to the sandy beach, where we were to lash them together.
+Presently we came across a very heavy rail, about eight feet long,
+twelve inches in width, and two inches thick. It was no sooner up-ended
+than we saw half a dozen "bandy-bandies"--the smallest but most deadly
+of Australian snakes, not even excepting the death-adder--lying beneath!
+We gave a united yell of terror and fled as the black and yellow banded
+reptiles--none of which were over eighteen inches in length nor thicker
+than a man's little finger--wriggled between our feet into the long
+grass around us. For some minutes we were too frightened at our escape
+to speak; but soon set to work to complete the raft. Presently one of
+the blackfellows pointed to a tall honeysuckle-tree about fifty feet
+away, and said with a gleeful chuckle, "Hallo, you see him that 'pfeller
+goanner been catch him bandy-bandy?"
+
+Sure enough, an iguana, about three feet in length, was scurrying up the
+rough, ridgy bark of the honeysuckle with a "bandy-bandy" in his jaws.
+He had seized the snake by its head, I imagine, for we could see the
+rest of its form twisting and turning about and enveloping the body of
+its capturer. In a few seconds we saw the iguana ascend still higher,
+then he disappeared with his hateful prey among the loftier branches. No
+doubt he enjoyed his meal.
+
+About a year or so later I was given another instance of the "cuteness"
+of the wicked "goanner." My sister (aged twelve) and myself (two years
+younger) were fishing with bamboo rods for mullet. We were standing, one
+on each side, of the rocky edges of a tiny little bay on the coast near
+Port Macquarie (New South Wales). The background was a short, steep
+beach of soft, snow-white sand, fringed at the high-water margin with a
+dense jungle of wild apple and pandanus-trees.
+
+The mullet bit freely, and as we swung the gleaming, bright-silvered
+fish out of the water on to the rocks on which we stood, we threw them
+up on to the beach, and left them to kick about and coat themselves with
+the clean, white sand--which they did in such an artistic manner that
+one would imagine they considered it egg and breadcrumb, and were
+preparing themselves to fulfil their ultimate and proper use to the
+_genus homo_.
+
+My sister had caught seven and I five, when, the sun being amidships, we
+decided to boil the billy of tea and get something to eat; young mullet,
+roasted on a glowing fire of honeysuckle cobs were, we knew, very nice.
+So, laying down our rods on the rocks, we walked up to the beach--just
+in time to see two "goanners"--one of them with a wriggling mullet in
+his mouth--scamper off into the bush.
+
+A careful search revealed the harrowing fact that nine of the twelve
+fish were missing, and the multitudinous criss-cross tracks on the sand
+showed the cause of their disappearance. My sister sat down on a hollow
+log and wept, out of sheer vexation of spirit, while I lit a fire to
+boil the billy and grill the three remaining mullet. Then after we had
+eaten the fish and drank some tea, we concocted a plan of deadly
+revenge. We took four large bream-hooks, bent them on to a piece of
+fishing-line, baited each hook with a good-sized piece of octopus (our
+mullet bait), and suspended the line between two saplings, about three
+inches above the leaf-strewn ground. Then, feeling confident of the
+success of our murderous device, we finished the billy of tea and went
+back to our fishing. We caught a couple of dozen or more of fine mullet,
+each one weighing not less than 1-1/2 lbs.; and then the incoming tide
+with its sweeping seas drove us from the ledge of rocks to the beach,
+where we changed our bamboo rods for hand-lines with sinkers, and flung
+them, baited with chunks of mullet, out into the breaking surf for
+sea-bream. By four in the afternoon we had caught more fish than we
+could well carry home, five miles away; and after stringing the mullet
+and bream through the gills with a strip of supple-jack cane, we went up
+the beach to our camp for the billy can and basket.
+
+And then we saw a sight that struck terror into our guilty souls--a
+_Danse Macabre_ of three writhing black and yellow, long-tailed
+"goanners," twisting, turning and lashing their sinuous and scaly tails
+in agony as they sought to free their widely-opened jaws from the cruel
+hooks. One had two hooks in his mouth. He was the quietest of the lot,
+as he had less purchase than the other two upon the ground, and with one
+hook in his lower and one in his upper jaw, glared upwards at us in his
+torture and smote his sides with his long, thin tail.
+
+"Oh, you wicked, wicked boy!" said my partner in guilt--at once shifting
+the responsibility of the whole affair upon me--"you ought to be ashamed
+of yourself for doing such a thing! You know well enough that we should
+never hurt a poor, harmless iguana. Oh, _do_ take those horrible hooks
+out of the poor things' mouths and let them go, you wicked, cruel boy!"
+
+With my heart in my mouth I crept round through the scrub, knife in
+hand.
+
+"Go on, you horrible, horrible, coward!" screamed my sister; "one would
+think that the poor things were alligators or sharks. Oh, my goodness,
+if you're so frightened, I'll come and do it myself." With that she
+clambered up into the branches of a pandanus-tree and looked at me
+excitedly, mingled with considerable contempt and much fear.
+
+Being quite wise enough not to attempt to take the hooks out of the
+"goanners'" mouths, I cut the two ends of the line to which they hung.
+They instantly sought refuge on the tree trunks around them; but as each
+"goanner" selected his individual tree, and as they were still connected
+to each other by the line and the hooks in their jaws, their attempts to
+reach a higher plane was a failure. So they fell to upon one another
+savagely.
+
+"Come away, you wicked, thoughtless boy," said my sister, weepingly. "I
+shall never come out with you again; you cruel thing."
+
+Then, overcoming my fear, I valiantly advanced, and gingerly extending
+my arm, cut the tangled-up fishing line in a dozen places; and with my
+bamboo fishing-rod disintegrated the combatants. They stood for a few
+seconds, panting and open-mouthed, and then, with the hooks still fast
+in their jaws, scurried away into the scrub.
+
+
+
+
+_The Ta~nifa of Samoa_
+
+
+Many years ago, at the close of an intensely hot day, I set out from
+Apia, the principal port of Samoa, to walk to a village named Laulii, a
+few miles along the coast. Passing through the semi-Europeanised town of
+Matautu, I emerged out upon the open beach. I was bound on a
+pigeon-shooting trip to the mountains, but intended sleeping that night
+at Laulii with some native friends who were to accompany me. With me was
+a young Manhiki half-caste named Allan Strickland; he was about
+twenty-two years of age and one of the most perfect specimens of
+athletic manhood in the South Pacific.[15] For six months we had been
+business partners and comrades in a small cutter in which we traded
+between Apia and Sava'ii--the largest island of the Samoan group; and
+now after some months of toil we were taking a week's holiday together,
+and enjoying ourselves greatly, although at the time (1873) the country
+was in the throes of an internecine war.
+
+A walk of a mile brought us to the mouth of the Vaivasa River, a small
+stream flowing into the sea from the littoral on our right. The tide was
+high and we therefore hailed a picket who were stationed in the trenches
+on the opposite bank and asked them in a jocular manner not to fire at
+us while we were wading across. To our surprise, for we were both well
+known to and on very friendly terms with the contending parties, half a
+dozen of them sprang up and excitedly bade us not to attempt to cross.
+
+"Go further up the bank and cross to our _olo_ (lines) in a canoe,"
+added a young Manono chief whose family I knew well, "there is a
+_ta~nifa_ about. We saw it last night."
+
+That was quite enough for us--for the name _Ta~nifa_ sent a cold chill
+down our backs. We turned to the right, and after walking a quarter of a
+mile came to a hut on the bank at a spot regarded as neutral ground.
+Here we found some women and children and a canoe, and in less than five
+minutes we were landed on the other side, the women chorusing the
+dreadful fate that would have befallen us had we attempted to cross at
+the mouth of the river.
+
+"_E lima gafa le umi!_" ("'Tis five fathoms long!") cried one old dame.
+
+"And a fathom wide at the shoulders," said another bare-bosomed lady,
+with a shudder. "It hath come to the mouth of the Vaivasa because it
+hath smelt the blood of the three men who were killed in the river here
+two days ago."
+
+"We'll hear the true yarn presently," said my companion as we walked
+down the left-hand bank of the river. "There must be a _ta~nifa_
+cruising about, or else those Manono fellows wouldn't have been so
+scared at us wanting to cross."
+
+As soon as we reached the young chief's quarters, we were made very
+welcome, and were obliged to accept his invitation to remain and share
+supper with himself and his men--all stalwart young natives from the
+little island of Manono--a lovely spot situated in the straits
+separating Upolo from Savaii. Placing our guns and bags in the care of
+one of the warriors, we took our seats on the matted floor, filled our
+pipes anew, and, whilst a bowl of kava was being prepared, Li'o, the
+young chief told us about the advent of the _ta~nifa_.
+
+Let me first of all, however, explain that the _ta~nifa_ is a somewhat
+rare and greatly-dreaded member of the old-established shark family. By
+many white residents in Samoa it was believed to occasionally reach a
+length of from twenty to twenty-five feet; as a matter of fact it seldom
+exceeds ten feet, but its great girth, and its solitary, nocturnal habit
+of haunting the mouths of shallow streams has invested it even to the
+native mind with fictional powers of voracity and destruction. Yet,
+despite the exaggerated accounts of the creature, it is really a
+dreadful monster, rendered the more dangerous to human life by the
+persistency with which it frequents muddied and shallow water,
+particularly after a freshet caused by heavy rain, when its presence
+cannot be discerned.
+
+Into the port of Apia there fall two small streams--called "rivers" by
+the local people--the Mulivai and the Vaisigago, and I was fortunate to
+see specimens of the _ta~nifa_ on three occasions, twice at the
+Vaisigago, and once at the mouth of the Mulivai, but I had never seen
+one caught, or even sufficiently exposed to give me an idea of its
+proportions. Many natives, however--particularly an old Rarotongan named
+Hapai, who lived in Apia, and was the proud capturer of several
+_ta~nifa_--gave me a reliable description, which I afterwards
+verified.
+
+A _ta~nifa_ ten feet long, they assured me, was an enormously bulky and
+powerful creature with jaws and teeth much larger than an ocean-haunting
+shark of double that length; the width across the shoulders was very
+great, and although it generally swam slowly, it would, when it had once
+sighted its prey, dart along under the water with great rapidity without
+causing a ripple. At a village in Savaii, a powerfully built woman who
+was incautiously bathing at the mouth of a stream was seized by one of
+these sharks almost before she could utter a cry, so swiftly and
+suddenly was she attacked. Several attempts were made to capture the
+brute, which continued to haunt the scene of the tragedy for several
+days, but it was too cunning to take a hook and was never caught.
+
+This particular _ta~nifa_, which had been seen by the young Manono
+chief and his men on the preceding evening had made its appearance soon
+after darkness had fallen and had cruised to and fro across the mouth of
+the Vaivasa till the tide began to fall, when it made its way seaward
+through a passage in the reef. It was, so Li'o assured me, quite eight
+feet in length and very wide across the head and shoulders. The water
+was clear and by the bright starlight they had discerned its movements
+very easily; once it came well into the river and remained stationary
+for some minutes, lying under about two feet of water. Some of the
+Manono men, hailing a picket of the enemy on the opposite bank of the
+river, asked for a ten minutes' truce to try and shoot it; this was
+granted, and standing on top of the sandy trench, half a dozen young
+fellows fired a volley at the shark from their Sniders. None of the
+bullets took effect and the _ta~nifa_ sailed slowly off again to
+cruise to and fro for another hour, watching for any hapless person who
+might cross the river.
+
+Just as the kava was being handed round, some children who were on watch
+cried out that the _ta~nifa_ had come. Springing to his feet, Li'o
+again hailed the enemy's picket on the other side, and a truce was
+agreed to, so that "the white men could have a look at the
+_ma|lie_"--shark.
+
+Thirty or forty yards away was what seemed to be a huge, irregular and
+waving mass of phosphorus which, as it drew nearer, revealed the
+outlines of the dreaded fish. It came in straight for the mouth of the
+creek, passed over the pebbly bar, and then swam leisurely about in the
+brackish water, moving from bank to bank at less than a dozen feet from
+the shore. The stream of bright phosphorescent light which had
+surrounded its body when it first appeared had now, owing to there being
+but a minor degree of phosphorus in the brackish water, given place to
+a dulled, sickly, greenish reflection, accentuated however by thin,
+vivid streaks, caused by the exudation from the gills of a streaming,
+viscid matter, common to some species of sharks, and giving it a truly
+terrifying and horrible appearance. Presently a couple of natives,
+taking careful aim, fired at the creature's head; in an instant it
+darted off with extraordinary velocity, rushing through the water like a
+submerged comet--if I may use the illustration. Both of the men who had
+fired were confident their bullets had struck and badly wounded the
+shark, but were greatly disgusted when, ten minutes later, it again
+appeared, swimming leisurely about, at ten fathoms from the beach.
+
+Three days later, as we were returning to Apia, we were told by our
+native friends that the shark still haunted the mouth of the Vaivasa;
+and I determined to capture it. I sent Allan on board the cutter for our
+one shark hook--a hook which had done much execution among the sea
+prowlers. Although not of the largest size, being only ten inches in the
+shank, it was made of splendid steel, and we had frequently caught
+fifteen-feet sharks with it at sea. It was a cherished possession with
+us and we always kept it--and the four feet of chain to which it was
+attached--bright and clean.
+
+In the evening Allan returned, accompanied by the local pilot (a Captain
+Hamilton) and the fat, puffing, master of a German barque. They wanted
+"to see the fun." We soon had everything in readiness; the hook, baited
+with the belly-portion of a freshly-killed pig (which the Manono people
+had commandeered from a bush village) was buoyed to piece of light _pua_
+wood to keep it from sinking, and then with twenty fathoms of brand-new
+whale line attached, we let it drift out into the centre of the passage.
+Then making our end of the line fast to the trunk of a coconut tree, we
+set some children to watch, and went into the trenches to drink some
+kava, smoke, and gossip.
+
+We had not long to wait--barely half an hour--when we heard a warning
+yell from the watchers. The _ta~nifa_ was in sight.
+
+Jumping up and tumbling over each other in our eagerness we rushed out;
+but alas! too late for the shark; for instead of approaching in its
+usual leisurely manner, it made a straight dart at the bait, and before
+we could free our end of the line it was as taut as an iron bar, and the
+creature, with the hook firmly fastened in his jaw, was ploughing the
+water into foam, amid yells of excitement from the natives. Then
+suddenly the line fell slack, and the half-a-dozen men who were holding
+it went over on their backs, heels up.
+
+In mournful silence we hauled it in, and then, oh woe! the hook, our
+prized, our beautiful hook, was gone! and with it two feet of the chain,
+which had parted at the centre swivel. That particular _ta~nifa_ was
+seen no more.
+
+Nearly two months later, two _ta~nifa_ of a much larger size, appeared
+at the mouth of the Vaivasa. Several of the white residents tried, night
+after night, to hook them, but the monsters refused to look at the
+baits. Then appeared on the scene an old one-eyed Malay named 'Reo, who
+asserted he could kill them easily. The way in which he set to work was
+described to me by the natives who witnessed the operations. Taking a
+piece of green bamboo, about four feet in length, he split from it two
+strips each an inch wide. The ends of these he then, after charring the
+points, sharpened carefully; then by great pressure he coiled them up
+into as small a compass as possible, keeping the whole in position by
+sewing the coil up in the fresh skin of a fish known as the _isuumu
+moana_--a species of the "leather-jacket." Then he asked to be provided
+with two dogs. A couple of curs were soon provided, killed, and the
+viscera removed. The coils of bamboo were then placed in the vacancy and
+the skin of the bellies stitched up with small wooden skewers. That
+completed the preparation of the baits.
+
+As soon as the two sharks made their appearance, one of the dead dogs
+was thrown into the water. It was quickly swallowed. Then the second
+followed, and was also seized by the other _ta~nifa_. The creatures
+cruised about for some hours, then went off, as the tide began to fall.
+
+On the following evening they did not turn up, nor on the next; but the
+Malay insisted that within four or five days both would be dead. As soon
+as the dogs were digested, he said, the thin fish-skin would follow, the
+bamboo coil would fly apart, and the sharpened ends penetrate not only
+the sharks' intestines, but protrude through the outer skin as well.
+
+Quite a week afterwards, during which time neither of the _ta~nifa_
+had been seen alive, the smaller of the two was found dead on the beach
+at Vailele Plantation, about four miles from the Vaivasa. It was
+examined by numbers of people, and presented an extremely interesting
+sight; one end of the bamboo spring was protruding over a foot from the
+belly, which was so cut and lacerated by the agonised efforts of the
+monster to free itself from the instrument of torture, that much of the
+intestines was gone.
+
+That the larger of these dreaded fish had died in the same manner there
+was no reason to doubt; but probably it had sunk in the deep water
+outside the barrier reef.
+
+
+
+
+_On Board the "_Tucopia_."
+
+
+The little island trading barque _Tucopia_, Henry Robertson, master, lay
+just below Garden Island in Sydney Harbour, ready to sail for the
+Friendly Islands and Samoa as soon as the captain came on board. At nine
+o'clock, as Bruce, the old, white-haired, Scotch mate, was pointing out
+to Mrs. Lacy and the Reverend Wilfrid Lacy the many ships around, and
+telling them from whence they came or where they were bound, the second
+mate called out--
+
+"Here's the captain's boat coming, sir."
+
+Bruce touched his cap to the pale-faced, violet-eyed clergyman's wife,
+and turning to the break of the poop, at once gave orders to "heave
+short," leaving the field clear to Mr. Charles Otway, the supercargo of
+the _Tucopia_, who was twenty-two years of age, had had seven years'
+experience of general wickedness in the South Seas, thought he was in
+love with Mrs. Lacy, and that, before the barque reached Samoa, he would
+make the lady feel that the Reverend Wilfrid was a serious mistake, and
+that he, Charles Otway, was the one man in the world whom she could love
+and be happy with for ever. So, being a hot-blooded and irresponsible
+young villain, though careful and decorous to all outward seeming, he
+set himself to work, took exceeding care over his yellow, curly hair,
+and moustache, and abstained from swearing in Mrs. Lacy's hearing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week before, Mr. and Mrs. Lacy had called at the owner's office and
+inquired about a passage to Samoa in the _Tucopia_, and Otway was sent
+for.
+
+"Otway," said the junior partner, "can you make room on the _Tucopia_
+for two more passengers--nice people, a clergyman and his wife."
+
+"D----all nice people, especially clergymen and their wives," he
+answered promptly--for although the youngest supercargo in the firm, he
+was considered, the smartest--and took every advantage of the fact. "I'm
+sick of carting these confounded missionaries about, Mr. Harry. Last
+trip we took two down to Tonga--beastly hymn-grinding pair, who wanted
+the hands to come aft every night to prayers, and played-up generally
+with the discipline of the ship. Robertson never interfered, and old
+Bruce, who is one of the psalm-singing kidney himself, encouraged the
+beasts to turn the ship into a floating Bethel."
+
+"Mr. Harry" laughed good-naturedly. "Otway, my boy, you mustn't put on
+so much side--the firm can't afford it. If you hadn't drunk so much
+whisky last night you would be in a better temper this morning."
+
+"Oh, if you've got some one else to take my billet on the _Tucopia_,
+why don't you say so, instead of backing and filling about, like a
+billy-goat in stays? _I_ don't care a damn if you load the schooner up
+to her maintop with sky-pilots and their dowdy women-kind. I've had
+enough of 'em, and I hereby tender you my resignation. I can get another
+and a better ship to-morrow, if--"
+
+"Sit down, you cock-a-hoopy young ass," and "Mr. Harry" hit the
+supercargo a good-humoured but stiff blow in the chest. "These people
+aren't missionaries; they're a cut above the usual breed. Man's a
+gentleman; woman's as sweet as a rosebud. Now look here, Otway; we give
+you a pretty free hand generally, but in this instance we want you to
+stretch a point--you can give these people berths in the trade-room,
+can't you?"
+
+The supercargo considered a moment. "There's a lot returning this trip.
+First, there's the French priest for Wallis Island--nice old buffer, but
+never washes, and grinds his teeth in his sleep--he's in the cabin next
+to mine; old Miss Wiedermann for Tonga--cabin on starboard side--fussy
+old cat, who is always telling me that she can distinctly hear
+Robertson's bad language on deck. But her brother is a good sort, and so
+I put up with her. Then there's Captain Burr, in the skipper's cabin,
+two Samoan half-caste girls in the deck-house--there's going to be
+trouble over those women, old Bruce says, and I don't doubt it--and the
+whole lot will have their meals in the beastly dog-kennel you call a
+saloon, and I call a sweat-box."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Otway. Your elegant manner of speaking shows clearly
+the refining influence of the charming people with whom you associate.
+Just let me tell you this--you looked like a gentleman a year or two
+ago, but become less like one every day."
+
+"No wonder," replied Otway sullenly, "the Island trade is not calculated
+to turn out Chesterfields. I'm sick enough of it, now we are carrying
+passengers as well as cargo. I suppose the firm will be asking us
+supercargoes to wear uniform and brass buttons soon, like the ticket
+collector on a penny ferry."
+
+"Quite likely, my sulky young friend--quite likely, if it will pay us to
+do so."
+
+"Then I'll clear out, and go nigger-catching again in the Solomons.
+That's a lot better than having to be civil to people who worry the soul
+out of you, are always in the way at sea, and a beastly nuisance in
+port. Why, do you know what old Miss Weidermann did at Manono, in Samoa,
+when we were there buying yams three months ago?"
+
+"No; what did she do?"
+
+"Got the skipper and myself into a howling mess through her infernal
+interference; and if the chiefs and old Mataafa himself had not come to
+our help there would have been some shooting, and this firm could never
+have sent another ship to Manono again. It makes me mad when I think of
+it--the silly old bundle of propriety and feminine spite."
+
+"Tell me all about it, Otway. 'Twill do you good, I can see, to unburden
+yourself of some of your bad temper. Shut that door, and we'll have a
+brandy-and-soda together."
+
+"Well," said Otway, "this is what occurred. I was ashore in the village,
+buying and weighing the yams, the skipper was lending me a hand, and
+everything was going on bully, when Mataafa and his chiefs sent an
+invitation to us to come up to his house and drink kava. Of course such
+an invitation from the native point of view was a great honour; and
+then, besides that, it was good business to keep in with old Mataafa,
+who had just given the Germans a thrashing at Vailele, and was as proud
+as a dog with two tails. So, although I hate kava, I accepted the
+invitation with 'many expressions of pleasure,' and felt sure that as
+the old fellow knew me of old, and I knew he wanted to buy some rifles,
+that I should get the bulk of a bag of sovereigns his mongrel, low-down
+American secretary was carrying around. So oft went the skipper and I,
+letting the yams stand over till we returned; the barque was lying about
+a mile off the beach. Mataafa was very polite to us, and during the kava
+drinking I found out that he had about three hundred sovereigns, and
+wanted to see the Martini-Henrys we had on board. Of course I told him
+that it would be a serious business for the ship if he gave us
+away--imprisonment in a dreadful dungeon in Fiji, if not hanging at the
+yard-arm or a man-of-war--and the old cock winked his eye and laughed.
+Then, as time was valuable, we at once concocted a plan to get the
+rifles--fifty--ashore without making too much of a show. Well, among
+some of the women present there were two great swells, one was the
+_taupo_, or town maid, of Palaulae in Savaii, and the other was a niece
+of Mataafa himself. These two, accompanied by a lot of young women of
+Manono, were to go off on board the barque in our boats, ostensibly to
+pay their respects to the white lady on board, and invite her on shore,
+so as to get her out of the way; then I was to pass the arms out of the
+stern ports into some canoes which would be waiting just as it became
+dark. About five o'clock they started off in one boat, leaving me and
+the skipper to follow in another. I had sent a note off to the mate
+telling him all about the little game, and to be mighty polite to the
+two chief women, who were to be introduced to Miss Weidermann, give the
+old devil some presents of mats, fruits, and such things, and ask her to
+come ashore as Mataafa's guest.
+
+"Well, something had gone wrong with the Weidermann's temper; for when
+the women came on board she was sulking in her cabin, and refused to
+show her vinegary face outside her state-room door. Thinking she would
+get over her tantrum in a few minutes, the mate invited the two Samoan
+ladies and their attendants down into the cabin, where they awaited her
+appearance, behaving themselves, of course, very decorously, it being a
+visit of ceremony.
+
+"Presently Old Cat-face opened her door, and then, without giving the
+native ladies time to utter a word, she launched out at them in her
+bastard-mongrel Samoan-Tongan. The first thing she said was that she
+knew the kind of women they were, and what had brought them on board!
+How dared such brazen, shameless cattle come into the cabin! Into the
+same cabin as a white lady! The bold, half-naked, disgraceful hussies,
+etc., etc. And then she capped the thing by calling to the steward to
+come and drive them out!
+
+"Not one of the native women could answer her. They were all simply
+dumbfounded at such a gross insult, and left the cabin in silence. The
+mate tried to smooth things over, but one of the women--Mataafa's
+niece--gave him a look that told him to say no more. In half an hour the
+whole lot of them were back on the beach, and came up to the chiefs
+house, where the skipper and myself were having a final drink of kava
+with old Mataafa and his _faipule_.[16] The face of the elder of the two
+women was blazing with anger, and then, pointing to the captain and
+myself, she gave us such a tongue-lashing for sending her off to the
+ship to be shamed and insulted, that made us blush. Old Mataafa waited
+until she had finished, and then, with an ugly gleam in his eye but
+speaking very quietly, asked us what it meant.
+
+"What _could_ we say but that it was no fault of ours; and then, by a
+happy inspiration, I added that although Miss Weidermann was generally
+well-conducted enough, she sometimes got blazing drunk, and made a beast
+of herself. This explanation satisfied the chiefs, if not the women, and
+everything went on smoothly. And as it was then nearly dark, and I was
+determined that Mataafa should get his rifles, half a dozen of his men
+took us off in their canoes, and we went on board. The skipper and I had
+fixed up as to what we should do with the Weidermann creature. She was
+seated at the cabin table waiting to open out on us, but the skipper
+didn't give her a chance.
+
+"'Go to your cabin at once, madam,' he said solemnly, 'and I trust you
+will not again leave it in your present condition. Your conduct is
+simply astounding. _Steward, see that you give Miss Weidermann no more
+grog_.'
+
+"The poor old girl thought that either he or she herself was going mad,
+but he gave her no time to talk. The captain opened her state-room door,
+gently pushed her in, and put a man outside to see that she didn't come
+out again. Then we handed out the rifles through the stern-ports to the
+natives in the canoes, and sent them away rejoicing. And that's the end
+of the yarn, and Miss Weidermann nearly went into a fit next morning
+when we told her that no less than thirty respectable native women had
+taken their oaths that she was mad drunk, and abused them vilely."
+
+The junior partner laughed loudly at the story, and Otway, with a more
+amiable look on his face, rose.
+
+"Well, I'll do what I can for these people. I'll make room for them
+somehow. Where are they going?"
+
+"Samoa. They have an idea of settling down there, I think, for a few
+months, and then going on to China. They have plenty of money,
+apparently."
+
+"Oh, well, tell them to come on board to-morrow, and I'll show them what
+can be done for them."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So the Rev. and Mrs. Lacy did come on board, and Mr. Charles Otway was
+vanquished by just one single glance from the lady's violet eyes.
+
+"It would have been such a dreadful disappointment to us if we could not
+have obtained passages in the _Tucopia_," she said, in her soft, sweet
+voice, as she sank back in the deck-chair he placed before her. "My
+husband is so bent on making a tour through Samoa. Now, do tell me, Mr.
+Otway, are these islands so very lovely?"
+
+"Very, very lovely, Mrs. Lacy," replied Otway, leaning with his back
+against the rail and regarding her with half-closed eyes; "as sweet and
+fair to look upon as a lovely woman--a woman with violet eyes and lips
+like a budding rose."
+
+She gave him one swift glance, seemingly in anger, yet her eyes smiled
+into his; then she bent her head and regarded the deck with intense
+interest. Otway thought he had scored. She was sure _she_ had.
+
+Otway had just shown her and her husband his own cabin, and had told
+them that they could occupy it--he would make himself comfortable in the
+trade-room, he said. This was after the first look from the violet eyes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Robertson, the skipper, came aboard, shook hands with Mrs. Lacy and her
+husband, nodded to the other passengers, dived below for a moment or
+two, and then reappeared on deck, full of energy, blasphemy, and anxiety
+to get under way. In less than an hour the smart barque was outside the
+Heads, and heeling over to a brisk south-westerly breeze. Two days later
+she was four hundred miles on her course.
+
+The Rev. Wilfrid Lacy soon made himself very agreeable to the rest of
+the passengers, who all agreed that he was a splendid type of parson,
+and even Otway, who had as much principle as a rat and began making love
+to his wife from the outset, liked him. First of all, he was not the
+usual style of travelling clergyman. He didn't say grace at meals, he
+smoked a pipe, drank whisky and brandy with Otway and Robertson, told
+rattling good stories, and displayed an immediate interest when the
+skipper mentioned that the second mate was a "bit of a bruiser," and
+that there were gloves on board; and the second mate, a nuggety little
+Tynesider, at once consented to a friendly mill as soon as he was off
+duty.
+
+"Wilfrid," said Mrs. Lacy, "you'll shock every one. I can see that
+Captain Robertson wonders what sort of a clergyman you are."
+
+Robertson saw the merry light in her dark eyes, and then laughed aloud
+as he saw Miss Weidermann's face. It expressed the very strongest
+disapproval, and during the rest of the meal the virgin lady preserved a
+dismal silence. The rest of the passengers, however, "took" to the
+clerical gentleman at once. With old Father Roget--the Marist
+missionary who sat opposite him--he soon entered into an animated
+conversation, while the two De Boos girls, vivacious Samoan half-castes,
+attached themselves to his wife. Seated beside Otway was another
+passenger, an American skipper named Burr, who was going to Apia to take
+command of a vessel belonging to the same firm as the _Tucopia_. He was
+a silent, good-looking man of about sixty, and possessed of much caustic
+humour and a remarkable fund of smoking-room stories, which, on rare
+occasions, he would relate in an inimitable, drawling manner, as if he
+was tired. The chief mate was a deeply but not obtrusively religious
+Scotsman; the second officer, Allen, was a young man of thirty, an
+excellent seaman, but rough to the verge of brutality with the crew.
+Bruce, on the other hand, was too easy-going and patient.
+
+"I never want to raise my hand against a man," he said one day, as a
+protest, when Allen gave one of the crew an unmerciful cuff which sent
+him down as if he had been shot.
+
+"Neither do I," replied Allen, "I prefer raising my foot. But it's
+habit, Mr. Bruce, only habit."
+
+For five days the barque ran steadily on an E.N.E. course, then on the
+sixth day the wind hauled, and by sunset it was blowing hard from the
+eastward with a fast-gathering sea. By two in the morning Robertson and
+his officers knew that they were in for a three-days' easterly gale; a
+few hours later it was decided to heave-to, as the sea had become
+dangerous, and the little vessel was straining badly. Just after this
+had been done, the gale set in with redoubled fury, and when Mrs. Lacy
+came on deck shortly before breakfast, she shuddered at the wild
+spectacle. Coming to the break of the poop, she clasped the iron rail
+with both hands, and gazed fearfully about her.
+
+"You had better go below, ma'am," said the second mate, who was standing
+near, talking to Otway, "there's some nasty, lumpy seas."
+
+Then he gave a yell.
+
+"Look out there!"
+
+Springing to Mrs. Lacy's side, he clasped his left arm around her waist,
+and held on tightly to the iron rail with his right, just as a vast
+mountain of water took the barque amidships, fell on her deck with
+terrific force, and fairly buried her from the topgallant foc'scle to
+the level of the poop. In less than half a minute the galley, for'ard
+deck-house, long-boat, which was lying on the main hatch, and the port
+bulwarks had vanished, together with three poor seamen who were asleep
+in the deck-house. The fearful crash brought the captain flying on deck.
+One glance showed him that there was no chance of saving the men--to
+attempt to lower a boat in such a sea was utterly impossible, and would
+be madness itself. He sighed, and then took off his cap. Allen and Otway
+followed his example.
+
+"Is there no hope for them?" Mrs. Lacy whispered to Otway.
+
+"None," replied the supercargo in a low voice. "None." Then he urged her
+to go below, as it was not safe for her to remain on deck. She went at
+once, and met her husband just as he was leaving their cabin.
+
+"What is the matter, Nell?" he asked, as he saw that tears were in her
+eyes.
+
+"Three poor men have been carried overboard, Wilfrid. They were in the
+deck-house asleep ten minutes ago--now they are gone! Oh, isn't it
+dreadful, dreadful!" And then she sat down beside him and wept silently.
+
+Breakfast was a forlorn meal--Robertson and his officers were not
+present, and Otway took the captain's seat. He, too, only remained to
+drink a cup of coffee, then hurriedly went on deck. Lacy rose at the
+same time, but at the foot of the companion, Otway motioned him to stop.
+
+"Don't come on deck awhile, if you please," he said, "and tell the
+ladies to keep to the cabin."
+
+"Anything fresh gone wrong?"
+
+"Yes," replied the supercargo, looking steadily at the clergyman--"the
+ship is making water badly. Don't you hear the pumps going? Tell the
+ladies not to come on deck--say it is not safe. And if the old
+Weidermann girl hears the pumps, and gets inquisitive, tell her that a
+lot of water got into the hold when that big sea tumbled aboard. She's
+an inquisitive old ass, and would be bound to tell the other ladies that
+the ship is in danger."
+
+Lacy nodded. "All right, I'll see to her. How long has the ship been
+leaking?"
+
+"For quite a long time. And there is fourteen inches in her, and it's as
+much as we can do to keep it under."
+
+"That is serious."
+
+Otway nodded. "Yes, it is serious in weather like this. Now I must go.
+Daresay we may give you a call in the course of the morning. Ever try a
+spell at old-fashioned brake pumps? Fine exercise."
+
+"I'm ready now if you want me," was the quiet answer.
+
+The _Tucopia_ was indeed in a pretty bad case. Immediately after the
+fatal sea had swept her decks the carpenter had sounded the well and
+found fifteen inches of water, some little of which had got below
+through the fore-scuttle, but the greater portion, it was soon evident,
+was the result of a leak. The barque was a comparatively new vessel, and
+Robertson and his officers, after two hours' pumping, came to the
+conclusion that she had either strained herself badly or a butt-end had
+started somewhere.
+
+For two hours the crew worked at the pumps, taking a spell of ten
+minutes every half-hour, Otway, the American captain Burr, and Mr. Lacy
+all lending a hand. Then the well was sounded, and showed two inches
+less.
+
+Robertson ordered the men to come aft and get a glass of grog. They
+trooped down into the cabin wet and exhausted, and the steward served
+them each out half a tumblerful of good French brandy. They drank it
+off, and then went on deck again to have a smoke before resuming
+pumping. A quarter of an hour later the pumps choked. There were a
+hundred tons of coal in the lower hold, and some of the small of it had
+been drawn up. By the time the carpenter had them cleared the water had
+gained seven inches, and the little barque was labouring heavily. Again,
+however, the willing crew turned to and pumped steadily for another
+hour, but only succeeded in reducing the water by an inch or two. Then
+Robertson called his officers together and consulted.
+
+"We can't keep on like this much longer," he said, "the water is gaining
+on us too fast. And we can't run before such a sea as this, in our
+condition; we should be pooped in less than five minutes. We shall have
+to take to the boats in another couple of hours, unless a change takes
+place. Mr. Allen, and you, Mr. Otway, see to the two boats, and get them
+in readiness."
+
+Then he went below to the passengers. They were all seated in the main
+cabin, and looked anxiously at him as he entered.
+
+"I am sorry to tell you, ladies," he said quietly, "that the ship is
+leaking so badly that I fear we shall have to abandon her. The men
+cannot keep on pumping much longer, now that we are three hands short.
+Fortunately we have two good boats, and, if we must take to them, shall
+have no trouble in reaching land."
+
+They heard him in silence, then the old priest opened his state-room
+door, and came out.
+
+"That is bad news indeed, captain," he said gently. "Still we must bow
+to God's will, and trust to His guidance and protection. And you and
+your officers and crew are good and brave seamen."
+
+"Thank you, father. We'll do all right if we have to take to the boats.
+And you must try and cheer up the ladies. Now I must leave you all for
+awhile. We will stick to the pumps for another hour or two."
+
+"Captain," said Sarah de Boos, a tall, finely built young woman of
+twenty, "let my sister and myself and our servant help the men at the
+pump. _Do_, please. We are all three very strong, and our help is surely
+worth having."
+
+Robertson patted her soft cheek with his big, sunburnt hand. "You are
+your father's daughter, Sarah, and I thank you. Of course your help
+would be something; three fine lusty young women"--he tried to
+smile--"but it's too dangerous for you to be on deck. All the bulwarks
+are gone, and nasty lumping seas come aboard every now and then."
+
+"I'm not afraid of a life-line hurting my waist," was the prompt answer,
+"and neither is Sukie--are you Sukie? Go on deck, captain, and Sukie and
+I and Mina" (the servant) "will just kick off our boots and follow you."
+
+"And I too," broke in old Father Roget. "Surely I am not too old to
+help."
+
+In less than five minutes the two half-caste girls, the native woman
+Mina, and the old priest, were working the starboard brake, three seamen
+being on the lee side. Every now and then, as the barque took a heavy
+roll to windward, the water would flood her deck up to the workers'
+knees; but they stuck steadily to their task for half an hour, when they
+gave place to Burr, the carpenter, the Rev. Wilfrid, and three native
+seamen.
+
+In the cabin Mrs. Lacy sat with ashen-hued face beside Miss Weidermann,
+their hands clasped together, and listening to the wild clamour of the
+wind and sea. Presently the two De Boos girls, Lacy, Father Roget, and
+Mina, came below to rest awhile, the water streaming from their sodden
+garments. The old priest, thoroughly exhausted, threw himself down upon
+the transom locker cushions.
+
+"Wilfrid," said Mrs. Lacy coming over to him and placing her shaking
+hand on his shoulder, "cannot I do something? Oh, Miss De Boos, I wish I
+were brave, like you. But I am not--I am a coward, and I hate myself for
+it."
+
+The Rev. Wilfrid smiled tenderly at her as he drew her to him for a
+moment. "Don't worry, little woman. You can't do anything--yes, you can,
+though! Get me my pipe and fill it for me. My hands are wet and
+cramped."
+
+Sukie De Boos, whose firm, rounded bosom and strong square shoulders
+made a startling contrast, as they revealed their shape under her
+soddened blouse, to Mrs. Lacy's fragile figure, impulsively put her
+hands out, and taking Mrs. Lacy's face between them, kissed her twice.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Lacy," she said, "don't be frightened, please. Now get Mr.
+Lacy's pipe, and I'll rummage the steward's pantry and get some food for
+us all to eat. Mr. Otway told me to tell you and Miss Weidermann to eat
+something, as maybe we may not get anything for some hours. So I'm just
+going to stay here and see that every one _does_ eat. I'll set you a
+good example."
+
+In a few minutes she laid upon the table an assortment of tinned meats,
+bread, and some bottled beer, and some brandy for Father Roget and Lacy.
+Otway came down, followed by the steward, and nodded approval.
+
+"That's right, Sukie. Eat as much as you can. I'll take a drink myself.
+Here's luck to you, Sukie. Perhaps we won't have to make up a boating
+party after all. But there's nothing like being ready. So will you, Mr.
+Lacy, lend a hand here with the steward, and pass up our provisions to
+the second mate? The captain will be down in a minute, and will tell you
+ladies what clothing to get ready. For my part I'll be jolly glad if we
+do have to take to the boats, where we shall be nice and comfy, instead
+of rolling about in this beastly way--I'll be sea-sick in another ten
+minutes. Old Bruce says he felt sick an hour ago. Come on, steward."
+
+The assumed cheerfulness of his manner produced a good effect, and even
+old Miss Weidermann plucked up heart a little as she saw him
+nonchalantly light a cigar as he disappeared with the steward below into
+the lazzarette.
+
+On deck Robertson and the mate were talking in low tones, as they
+assisted the second mate with the boats. There was now nearly three feet
+of water in the hold, and every one knew that the barque could not keep
+afloat much longer. Fortunately the violence of the wind had decreased
+somewhat, though there was still a mountainous sea.
+
+Both the old mate and the captain knew that the two small quarter boats
+would be dangerously overladen, and their unspoken fears were shared by
+the rest of the officers and crew. But another hour would perhaps make a
+great difference; and then as the two men were speaking a savage sea
+smote the _Tucopia_ on the starboard bow, with such violence that she
+trembled in every timber, and as she staggered under the shock and then
+rolled heavily to windward, she dipped the starboard quarter boat under
+the water; it filled, and as she rose again, boat and davits went away
+together.
+
+Robertson groaned and looked at the mate.
+
+"It is God's will, sir," said the old Scotsman quietly.
+
+Robertson nodded. "Tell Allen and the others to come here," he said.
+
+The Tynesider, followed by Captain Burr, Otway, and the carpenter, came.
+
+"Mr. Allen," said the captain, "you are the best man in such an
+emergency as this. You handle a boat better than any man I know. There
+is now only one boat left, and you must take charge of her. You will
+have to take a big lot of people--the four women, the parson, the old
+French priest, Mr. Otway, Captain Burr, the carpenter, and the five
+men."
+
+"I guess I'll stand out, and stick to the ship," said Burr in a lazy,
+drawling manner, "I don't like bein' crowded up with a lot of wimmen."
+
+"Neither do I, said Otway.
+
+"Same here, captain," said the carpenter, a little grizzled man of
+sixty.
+
+Robertson shook hands with each of them in turn. "I knew you were
+_men_," he said simply. "Come below and let's have a drink together, and
+then see to the boat."
+
+"What's all this, skipper?" said Allen, with an oath, "d'ye think I'm
+going to save my carcase and let you men drown? I'll see you all damned
+first!"
+
+"You'll obey orders," growled the captain, "and my orders are that you
+take charge of that boat. And don't give me any lip. You are a married
+man and have children. None of us who are standing by the ship are
+married men. By God, my joker, if you don't know your duty, I'll teach
+you. Are you going to let these four women go adrift in a boat to perish
+when you can save them?"
+
+Allen looked the captain squarely in the face and then put out his hand.
+
+"I understand you, sir. But I don't like doing it. The ship won't keep
+afloat another hour. But, as you say, I've a wife and kids to consider."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Followed by the others, Robertson went below, and told his passengers to
+get ready for the boat. The old French priest, exhausted by his labour
+at the pumps, was still lying on the transom cushions, sleeping; the
+Rev. Lacy was seated at the table smoking his pipe (all the ladies were
+in their state-rooms). He rose as the men entered, and looked at them
+inquiringly.
+
+"We're in a bit of a tight place," said the captain, as he coolly
+poured out half a tumblerful of brandy, "but I'm sending you, Mr. Lacy,
+and Father Roget, and the ladies away with Mr. Allen in one of the
+boats. Allen is a man whom I rely upon. He'll bring you ashore safely.
+He's a bit rough in his talk, but he's one of God's own chosen in a
+boat, and a fine sailor man--better than the mate, Captain Burr, or
+myself; isn't that so, Mr. Bruce?"
+
+The white-haired old mate bent his head in acknowledgment. Then he stood
+up stiff and stark, his rough bony hands clasped upon his chest.
+
+"I'll no' deny but that Mr. Allen is far and awa' the best man to have
+charge o' the boat. But as there is a meenister here, surely he will now
+offer up a prayer to the Almighty for those in peril on the sea, and
+especially implore Him to consider a sma' boat, deep to the gunwales."
+
+He looked at the clergyman, who at first made no reply, but stood with
+downcast eyes. The men looked at him expectantly; he put one hand on the
+table, and then slowly raised his face.
+
+"I think, gentlemen, that ... that Father Roget is the older man." He
+spoke haltingly, and a flush dyed his smooth, clean-shaven face from
+brow to chin. "Will you not ask him?" Then his eyes dropped again.
+
+Robertson, who was in a hurry, and yet had a sincere but secret respect
+for old Bruce's unobtrusive religious feelings, now backed up his mate's
+request.
+
+"I think, sir, that as the mate says, a bit of a short prayer would not
+be out of place just now, seeing the mess we are in. And that poor old
+gentleman over there is too done up to stand on his feet. So will you
+please begin, sir. Steward, call the ladies. We can no longer disguise
+from them, Mr. Lacy, that we are in a bad way--as bad a way as I have
+ever been in during my thirty years at sea."
+
+In a couple of minutes the two De Boos girls, Miss Weidermann, and the
+native girl Mina, came out of their cabins; and when the steward said
+that Mrs. Lacy felt too ill to leave her berth, her husband could not
+help giving an audible sigh of relief. Then he braced up and spoke with
+firmness.
+
+"Please shut Mrs. Lacy's door, steward. Mr. Bruce, will you lend me your
+church service--I do not want to go into my cabin for my own. My wife, I
+fear, has given way."
+
+The mate brought the church service, and then whilst the men stood with
+bowed heads, and the women knelt, the clergyman, with strong,
+unfaltering voice read the second of the prayers "To be used in Storms
+at Sea." He finished, and then sitting down again, placed one hand over
+his eyes.
+
+"_The living, the living shall praise Thee_."
+
+It was the old mate who spoke. He alone of the men had knelt beside the
+women, and when he rose his face bore such an expression of calmness and
+content, that Otway, who five minutes before had been silently cursing
+him for his "damned idiotcy," looked at him with a sudden mingled
+respect and wonder.
+
+Stepping across to the clergyman, Bruce respectfully placed his hand on
+his shoulder, and as he spoke his clear blue eyes smiled at the still
+kneeling women.
+
+"Cheer up, sir. God will protect ye and your gude wife, and us all. You,
+his meenister, have made supplication to Him, and He has heard. Dinna
+weep, ladies. We are in the care of One who holds the sea in the hollow
+of His hand."
+
+Then he followed the captain and the others on deck, Otway alone
+remaining to assist the steward.
+
+"For God's sake give me some brandy," said Lacy to him, in a low voice.
+
+Otway looked at him in astonishment. Was the man a coward after all?
+
+He brought the brandy, and with ill-disguised contempt placed it before
+him without a word. Lacy looked up at him, and his face flushed.
+
+"Oh, I'm not funking--not a d----d bit, I can assure you."
+
+Otway at once poured out a nip of brandy for himself, and clinked his
+glass against that of the clergyman.
+
+"Pon my soul, I couldn't make it out, and I apologise. But a man's
+nerves go all at once sometimes--can't help himself, you know. Mine did
+once when I was in the nigger-catching business in the Solomon Islands.
+Natives opened fire on us when our boats were aground in a creek, and
+some of our men got hit. I wasn't a bit scared of a smack from a bullet,
+but when I got a scratch on my hand from an arrow, I dropped in a blue
+funk, and acted like a cur. Knew it was poisoned, felt sure I'd die of
+lockjaw, and began to weep internally. Then the mate called me a rotten
+young cur, shook me up, and put my Snider into my hand. But I shall
+always feel funky at the sight even of a child's twopenny bow and arrow.
+Now I must go."
+
+The clergyman nodded and smiled, and then rising from his seat, he
+tapped at the door of his wife's state-room. She opened it, and then
+Otway, who was helping the steward, heard her sob hysterically.
+
+"Oh, Will, Will, why did you? How could you? I love you, Will dear, I
+love you, and if death comes to us in another hour, another minute, I
+shall die happily with your arms round me. But, Will dear, there is a
+God, I'm sure there _is_ a God.... I feel it in my heart, I feel it. And
+now that death is so near to us----"
+
+Lacy put his arms around her, and lifted her trembling figure upon his
+knees.
+
+"There, rest yourself, my pet."
+
+"Rest! Rest?" she said brokenly, as Lacy drew her to him. "How can I
+rest when I think of how I have sinned, and how I shall die! Will dear,
+when I heard you reading that prayer--"
+
+"I _had_ to do it, Nell."
+
+"Will, dear Will.... Perhaps God may forgive us both.... But as I sat
+here in my dark cabin, and listened to you reading that prayer, my
+husband's face came before me--the face that I thought was so dull and
+stupid. And his eyes seemed so soft and kind--"
+
+"For God's sake, my dear little woman, don't think of what is past. We
+have made the plunge together----"
+
+The woman uttered one last sobbing sigh. "I am not afraid to die, Will.
+I am not afraid, but when I heard you begin to read that prayer, my
+courage forsook me. I wanted to scream--to rush out and stop you, for it
+seemed to me as if you were doing it in sheer mockery."
+
+"I can only say again, Nell, that I could not help myself; made me feel
+pretty sick, I assure you."
+
+Their voices ceased, and presently Lacy stepped out into the main cabin,
+and then went on deck again.
+
+Robertson met him with a cheerful face. "Come on, Mr. Lacy. I've some
+good news for you--we are making less water! The leak must be taking up
+in some way." Then holding on to the rail with one hand, he shouted to
+the men at the pumps.
+
+"Shake her up, boys! shake her up. Here's Mr. Lacy come to lend a hand,
+and the supercargo and steward will be with you in a minute. Now I'm
+going below for a minute to tell the ladies, and mix you a bucket of
+grog. Shake her up, you, Tom Tarbucket, my bully boy with a glass eye!
+Shake her up, and when she sucks dry, I'll stand a sovereign all round."
+
+The willing crew answered him with a cheer, and Tom Tarbucket, a
+square-built, merry faced native of Savage Island, who was stripped to
+the waist, shouted out, amid the laughter of his shipmates--
+
+"Ay, ay, capt'in, we soon make pump suck dry if two Miss de Boos girl
+come."
+
+Robertson laughed in response, and then picking up a wooden bucket from
+under the fife rail, clattered down the companion way.
+
+"Where are you, Otway? Up you get on deck, and you too, steward. The
+leak is taken up and 'everything is lovely and the goose hangs high.' Up
+you go to the pumps, and make 'em suck. I'll bring up some grog
+presently."
+
+Then as Otway and the steward sprang up on deck, the captain stamped
+along the cabin in his sodden sea boots, banging at each door.
+
+"Come out, Sarah, come out Sukie, my little chickabiddies--there's to be
+no boat trip for you after all. Miss Weidermann, I've good news, good
+news! Mrs. Lacy, cheer up, dear lady. The leak has taken up, and you can
+go on deck and see your husband working at the pumps like a number one
+chop Trojan. Ha! Father Roget, give me your hand. You're a white man,
+sir, and ought to be a bishop."
+
+As he spoke to the now awakened old priest, the two De Boos girls, Mrs.
+Lacy and Miss Weidermann, all came out of their cabins, and Robertson
+shook hands with them, and lifting Sukie de Boos up between his two
+rough hands as if she were a little girl, he kissed her, and then made a
+grab at Sarah, who dodged behind Mrs. Lacy.
+
+"Now, father, don't you attempt to come on deck. Mrs. Lacy, just you
+keep him here. Sukie, my chick, you and Sarah get a couple of bottles of
+brandy, make this bucket full of half-and-half, and bring it on deck to
+the men."
+
+As he noisily stamped out of the cabin again, the old priest turned to
+the ladies, and raised his hand--
+
+"A brave, brave man--a very good English sailor. And now let us thank
+God for His mercies to us."
+
+The four ladies, with Mina, knelt, and then the good old man prayed
+fervently for a few minutes. Then Sukie de Boos and her sister flung
+their arms around Mrs. Lacy, and kissed her, and even Miss Weidermann,
+now thoroughly unstrung, began to cry hysterically. She had at first
+detested Mrs. Lacy as being altogether too scandalously young and pretty
+for a clergyman's wife. Now she was ready to take her to her bosom (that
+is, to her metaphorical bosom, as she had no other), for she believed
+that Mr. Lacy's prayer had saved them all, he being a Protestant
+clergyman, and therefore better qualified to avert imminent death than a
+priest of Rome.
+
+Sukie and Sally de Boos mixed the grog, took it on deck, and served it
+out to the men at the pumps.
+
+The carpenter sounded the well, and as he drew up the iron rod, the
+second mate gave a shout.
+
+"Only seven inches, captain."
+
+"Right, my boy. Take a good spell now, Mr. Allen. Mr. Bruce, we can give
+her a bit more lower canvas now. She'll stand it. Mr. Lacy, and you
+Captain Burr, come aft and get into some dry togs. The glass is rising
+steadily, and in a few hours we'll feel a bit more comfy."
+
+He prophesied truly, for the violence of the gale decreased rapidly,
+and when at the end of an hour the pumps sucked, the crew gave a cheer,
+and tired out as they were, eagerly sprang aloft to repair damages and
+then spread more sail, Sarah and Susan de Boos hauling and pulling at
+the running gear from the deck below. They were both girls of splendid
+physique, and, in a way, sailors, and had Robertson allowed them to do
+so, would have gone aloft and handled the canvas with the men.
+
+By four o'clock in the afternoon the little barque, with her wave-swept,
+bulwarkless decks, now drying under a bright sun, was running before a
+warm, good-hearted breeze, and the pumps were only attended to twice in
+every watch.
+
+Mrs. Lacy, Miss Weidermann, the De Boos girls, and the French priest
+were seated on the poop deck, on rugs and blankets spread out for them
+by Otway and the steward. Lacy, with Captain Burr, was pacing to and fro
+smoking his pipe, and laughing heartily at Sukie de Boos's attempts to
+make his wife smoke a cigarette. Presently old Bruce came along with the
+second mate and some men to set a new gaff-topsail, and the ladies rose
+to go below, so as to be out of the way.
+
+"Nae, nae, leddies, dinna go below," said the old mate cheerfully,
+"ye'll no' hinder us. And the sight o' sae many sweet, bonny faces will
+mak' us work a' the better. And how are ye now, Mrs. Lacy? Ah, the pink
+roses are in your cheeks once mair." And then he stepped quickly up to
+the young clergyman and took his hand.
+
+"Mr. Lacy, ye must pardon me, but I'm an auld man, and must hae my way.
+Ye're a gude, brave man;" then he added in a low voice, "and ye called
+upon Him, and He heard us."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Bruce," Lacy answered nervously, as he saw his wife's
+eyes droop, and a vivid blush dye her fair cheeks. Then he plucked the
+American captain by the sleeve and went below, and Sukie de Boos laughed
+loudly when in another minute they heard the pop of a bottle of soda
+water. She ran to the skylight and bent down.
+
+"You're a pair of exceedingly rude men. You might think of Father
+Roget--even if you don't think of us poor women. Mr. Otway, come here,
+you horrid, dirty-faced, ragged creature! Go below and get a glass of
+port wine for Father Roget, a bottle of champagne for Mrs. Lacy and my
+sister and myself, and a cup of tea for Mrs. Weidermann, and bring some
+biscuits, too."
+
+"Come and help me, then," said the supercargo, who was indeed
+dirty-faced and ragged.
+
+Sukie danced towards the companion way with him. Half-way down he put
+his arms round her and kissed her vigorously. She returned his kisses
+with interest, and laughingly smacked his cheek.
+
+"Let me go, Charlie Otway, you horrid, bold fellow. Now, one, two,
+three, or I'll call out and invoke the protection of the clergy, above
+and below--those on board this ship I mean, not those who are in heaven
+or elsewhere."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ten days later the _Tucopia_ sailed into Apia Harbour and dropped
+anchor inside Matautu Point just as the evening mists were closing their
+fleecy mantle around the verdant slopes of Vailima Mountain.
+
+The two half-caste girls, with their maid and Mr. and Mrs. Lacy, came to
+bid Otway and the captain a brief farewell, before they went ashore in
+the pilot boat to D'Acosta's hotel in Matafele.
+
+"Now remember, Otway, and you, Captain Robertson, and you, Captain Burr,
+you are all to dine with us at the hotel the day after to-morrow. And
+perhaps you, too, Father Roget will reconsider your decision and come
+too." It was Lacy who spoke.
+
+The gentle-voiced old Frenchman shook his head and smiled--"Ah no, it
+was impossible," he said. The bishop would not like him to so soon leave
+the Mission. But the bishop and his brothers at the Mission would look
+forward to have the good captain, and Mr. Burr, and Mr. Otway, and the
+ladies to accept his hospitality.
+
+Mrs. Lacy's soft little gloved hand was in Otway's.
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Otway, very, very sincerely for your many kindnesses
+to me. You have indeed been most generous to us both. It was cruel of us
+to take your cabin and compel you to sleep in the trade-room. But I
+shall never forget how kind you have been."
+
+All that was good in Otway came into his vicious heart and voiced softly
+through his lips.
+
+"I am only too glad, Mrs. Lacy.... I am indeed. I didn't like giving up
+my cabin to strangers at first, and was a bit of a beast when Mr. Harry
+told me we were taking two extra passengers. But I am glad now."
+
+He turned away, and went below with burning cheeks. Before the storm he
+had tried his best, late on several nights, to make Lacy drunk, and to
+keep him drunk; but Lacy could stand as much or more grog than he could
+himself; and when he heard that passionate, sobbing appeal, "Oh, Will,
+Will, how could you?" his better nature was stirred, and his fierce
+sensual desire for her changed into a sentimental affection and respect.
+He knew her secret, and now, instead of wishing to take advantage of it,
+felt he was too much of a man to abuse his knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Supper was over, and as the skipper, Burr, and Otway paced the
+quarter-deck before going ashore to play a game or two of billiards and
+meet some friends, a boat came alongside, and a man stepped on deck and
+inquired for the captain. As he followed Robertson down the companion,
+Otway saw that he was a well-dressed, rather gentlemanly-looking young
+man of about five and twenty.
+
+"Who's that joker, I wonder?" he said to Burr; "not any one living in
+Samoa, unless he's a new-comer. Hope he won't stay long--it's eight
+o'clock now."
+
+Ten minutes later the steward came to him.
+
+"The captain wishes to see you, sir."
+
+Otway entered the cabin. Robertson, with frowning face, motioned him to
+a seat. The strange gentleman sat near the captain smoking a cigar, and
+with some papers in his hands.
+
+"Mr. Otway, I have sent for you. This gentleman has a warrant for the
+arrest of Mr. Lacy, issued by the New Zealand Government and initialled
+by the British Consul here."
+
+Otway rose to the occasion. He nodded to the stranger and sat down
+quietly.
+
+"Yes, sir?" he asked inquiringly of Robertson.
+
+"You will please tell my supercargo your business, mister," said the
+captain gruffly to the stranger; "he can tell you all you wish to
+know--that is, if he cares to do so. I don't see that your warrant holds
+any force here in Samoa. You can't execute it. There's no government
+here, no police, no anything, and the British Consul can't act on a
+warrant issued from New Zealand. It is of no more use in Samoa than it
+would be at Cape Horn."
+
+"Now, sir, make haste," said Otway with a mingled and studied insolence
+and politeness. He already began to detest the stranger.
+
+"I am a detective of the police force of New Zealand, and I have come
+from Auckland to arrest William Barton, alias the Rev. Wilfrid Lacy, on
+a charge of stealing twenty thousand, five hundred pounds from the
+National Bank of Christchurch, of which he was manager. I believe that
+twenty thousand pounds of the money he has stolen is on board this
+vessel at this moment, and I now demand access to his cabin."
+
+"Do you? How are you going to enforce your demand, my cocksure friend?"
+
+Otway rose, and placing his two hands on the table, looked insultingly
+at the detective. "What rot you are talking, man!"
+
+The detective drew back, alarmed and startled.
+
+"The British Consul has endorsed my warrant to arrest this man," he
+said, "and it will go hard with any one who attempts to interfere with
+me in the performance of my duty."
+
+Otway shot a quick, triumphant glance at the captain.
+
+"The Consul is, and always was, a silly old ass. You have come on a
+fool's errand; and are going on the wrong tack by making threats. That
+idiotic warrant of yours is of no more use to you than a sheet of fly
+paper--Samoa is outside British jurisdiction. The High Commissioner for
+the Western Pacific would not have endorsed such a fool of a document,
+and I'll report the matter to him.... Now, sit down and tell me what you
+_do_ want, and I'll try and help you all I can. But don't try to bluff
+us--it's only wasting your time. Steward, bring us something to drink."
+
+As soon as the steward brought them "something to drink" Otway became
+deeply sympathetic with the detective, and Robertson, who knew his
+supercargo well, smiled inwardly at the manner he adopted.
+
+"Now, just tell us, Mr.--O'Donovan, I think you said is your name--what
+is all the trouble? I need hardly tell you that whilst both the captain
+and myself felt annoyed at your dictatorial manner, we are both sensible
+men, and will do all in our power to assist you. Our firm's reputation
+has to be studied--has it not, captain? We don't want it to be
+insinuated that we helped an embezzler to escape, do we?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied Robertson, puffing slowly at his cigar,
+watching Otway keenly through his half-closed eyelids, and wondering
+what that astute young gentleman was driving at. "I guess that you, Mr.
+Otway, will do all that is right and cor-rect."
+
+"Thank you, sir," replied Otway humbly, and with great seriousness, "I
+know my duty to my employers, and I know that this gentleman may be led
+into very serious trouble through the dense stupidity of the British
+Consul here."
+
+He turned to Mr. O'Donovan--"Are you aware, Mr. O'Donikin--I beg your
+pardon, O'Donovan--that the British Consul here is not, officially, the
+British Consul. He is merely a commercial agent, like the United States
+Consul. Neither are accredited by their Governments to act officially on
+behalf of their respective countries, and even if they were, there is no
+extradition treaty with the Samoan Islands, which is a country without a
+recognised government. Of course, Mr. O'Donovan, you are acting in good
+faith; but you have no more legal right nor the power to arrest a man in
+Samoa, than you have to arrest one in Manchuria or Patagonia. Of course,
+old Johns (the British Consul) doesn't know this, or he would not have
+made such a fool of himself by endorsing a warrant from an irresponsible
+judge of a New Zealand court. But as I told you, I shall aid you in
+every possible way."
+
+O'Donovan was no fool. He knew that all that Otway had said was
+absolutely correct, but he braced himself up.
+
+"I daresay what you say may be right, Mr. Supercargo. But I've come from
+New Zealand to get this joker, and by blazes I mean to get him, and take
+him back with me to New Zealand. And I mean to have those twenty
+thousand sovereigns to take back as well."
+
+"Well, then, why the devil don't you go and get your man? He's at Joe
+D'Acosta's hotel with his wife."
+
+"I don't want to be bothered with him just yet. I have no place to put
+him into. The Californian mail boat from San Francisco is not due here
+for another ten days. But I know that he hasn't taken his stolen money
+ashore yet, and you had better hand it over to me at once. I can get
+_him_ at any time."
+
+Otway leant back in his chair and laughed.
+
+"I don't doubt that, Mr. O'Donovan. If you have enough money to do it,
+you can do as you say--get this man at any time. But you want to have
+some guns behind you to enforce it; and then his capture won't affect
+our custody of the money. If the Consul instigates you to make an attack
+on the ship, you will do so at your peril, for we shall resist any
+piratical attempt."
+
+O'Donovan's face fell. "You said you would assist me?"
+
+"So I will," replied Otway, lying genially, "But you must point out a
+way. The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, in Fiji, is the only
+man who could give you power to arrest the man and convey him to New
+Zealand, and the moment you show me the High or the Deputy High
+Commissioner's order to hand over the money, and Lacy's other effects,
+I'll do so."
+
+The detective made his last stroke.
+
+"I can take the law into my own hands and chance the consequences. The
+Consul will supply me with a force--"
+
+Robertson smiled grimly, and pointed to the rack of Snider rifles around
+the mizen-mast at the head of the table.
+
+"You and your force will have a bad time of it then, and be shot down
+before you can put foot on my deck. I've never seen a shark eat a
+policeman, but there seems a chance of it now."
+
+O'Donovan laughed uneasily, then he changed his tactics.
+
+"Now look here, gentlemen," he said confidentially, leaning across the
+table, "I can see I'm in a bit of a hole, but I'm a business man, and
+you are business men, and I think we understand one another, eh? As you
+say, my warrant doesn't hold good here in Samoa. But the Consul will
+back me up, and if I can take this chap back to New Zealand it means a
+big thing for me. Now, what's your figure?"
+
+"Two hundred each for the skipper and myself," answered Otway promptly.
+
+"Done. You shall have it."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Give me till to-morrow afternoon. I've only a hundred and fifty pounds
+with me, and I'll have to raise the rest."
+
+"Very well, it's a deal. But mind, you'll have to take care to be here
+before the parson. He's coming off at eleven o'clock."
+
+"Trust me for that, gentlemen."
+
+"I'm sorry for his wife," said Otway meditatively.
+
+O'Donovan grinned. "Ah, I haven't told you the yarn--she's not his wife!
+She bolted from her husband, who is a big swell in Auckland, a Mr.----."
+
+"How did you get on their tracks?"
+
+"Sydney police found out that two people answering their description had
+sailed for the Islands in the _Tucopia_, and cabled over to us. We
+thought they had lit out for America. I only got here the day before
+yesterday in the _Ryno_, from Auckland."
+
+Otway paid him some very florid compliments on his smartness, and then
+after another drink or two, the detective went on shore, highly pleased.
+
+As soon as he was gone, Otway turned to Robertson.
+
+"You won't stand in my way, Robertson, will you?" he asked--"I want to
+see the poor devils get away."
+
+"You take all the responsibility, then."
+
+"I will," and then he rapidly told the skipper his plan, and set to
+work by at once asking the second mate to get ready the boat and then
+come back to the cabin.
+
+"All ready," said Allen, five minutes later.
+
+"Then come with the steward and help me with this gear."
+
+He unlocked the door of Lacy's state-room, lit the swinging candle, and
+quickly passed out Mr. and Mrs. Lacy's remaining luggage to the second
+mate and steward. Three small leather trunks, marked "Books with Care,"
+were especially heavy, and he guessed their contents.
+
+"Stow them safely in the boat, Allen. Don't make more noise than you can
+help. I'll be with you in a minute."
+
+Going into his own cabin, he took a large handbag, threw into it his
+revolver and two boxes of cartridges, then carried it into the
+trade-room, and added half a dozen tins of the brand of tobacco which he
+knew Lacy liked, and then filled the remaining space with pint bottles
+of champagne. Then he whipped up a sheet or two of letter paper and an
+envelope from the cabin-table, thrust them into his coat pocket, and,
+bag in hand, stepped quickly on deck. The old mate was in his cabin, and
+had not heard anything.
+
+"Give it to her, boys," he said to the crew, taking the steer-oar in his
+hand, and heading the boat towards a small fore-and-aft schooner lying
+half a mile away in the Matafele horn of the reef encircling Apia
+Harbour.
+
+The four native seamen bent to their oars in silence, and sped swiftly
+through the darkness over the calm waters of the harbour. The schooner
+showed no riding light on her forestay, but, on the after deck under the
+awning, a lamp was burning, and three men--the captain, mate, and
+boatswain--were playing cards on the skylight.
+
+Otway jumped on deck, just as the men rose to meet him.
+
+"Great Ascensial Jehosophat! Why, it's you, Mr. Otway?" cried the
+captain, a little clean-shaven man, as he shook hands with the
+supercargo. "Well, now, I was just wondering whether I'd go ashore and
+try and drop across you. Say, tell me now, hev you any good tinned beef
+and a case of Winchesters you can sell me?"
+
+"Yes, both," replied Otway, shaking hands with the three in turn--they
+were all old acquaintances, especially Le Brun, the mate. "But come
+below with me, Revels; I've important business, and it has to be done
+right away--this very night."
+
+Revels led the way below into the schooner's cabin, and at once produced
+a bottle of Bourbon and a couple of glasses.
+
+"No time to drink, Revels.... All right, just a little, then. Now, tell
+me, do you want to make--and make it easy--five hundred pounds?"
+
+"Guess I do."
+
+"Are you ready for sea?"
+
+"I was thinking of sailing on a cruise among the Tokelau Islands in a
+day or two."
+
+"Then don't think of it. If you put to sea to-night for a longer voyage,
+I can guarantee you that you will get five hundred pounds--if you will
+take two passengers on board, and put to sea as soon as they come
+alongside."
+
+"Where do they want to go?"
+
+"That I can't say. Manila or Hongkong, most likely. It'll pay you."
+
+"Is the money safe?"
+
+Otway struck his hand on the table. "Safe as rain, Revels. They have
+plenty. I have it here alongside, and if you don't get five hundred
+sovereigns paid you when you have dropped Samoa astern, you can come
+back with your passengers, and I'll give you fifty pounds myself."
+
+"Friends of yours?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That's enough fur me, Otway. Now, just tell me what to do."
+
+"Tell your mate to get your boat ready to go ashore, while I write a
+note."
+
+He took a sheet of paper, and hurriedly wrote in pencil:
+
+    "DEAR LACY,--Don't hesitate to follow my instructions. There's a man
+    here from New Zealand. Tried to get access to your cabin; bluffed
+    him. You and your wife must follow bearer of this note to his boat,
+    which will bring you to a schooner. The captain's name is Revels. He
+    expects you, and you can trust him. Have pledged him my word that
+    you will give him L500 to land you at Manila or thereabouts; also
+    that you will hand it to him as soon as the schooner is clear of the
+    land. _All_ your luggage is on board the schooner, awaiting you.
+    Allen helped me. You might send him a present by Revels. Goodbye,
+    and all good luck. One last word--_be quick, be quick_!"
+
+"Boat is ready," said Revels.
+
+"Right," and Otway closed the letter and handed it to the mate. "Here
+you are, Le Brun. Now, listen. Pull in to the mouth of the creek at the
+French Mission, just beside the bridge. Leave your boat there and then
+take this letter to D'Acosta's Hotel and ask to see Mr. Lacy. If he and
+his wife have gone out for a walk, you must follow them and give him the
+letter; but I feel pretty sure you'll find them on the verandah. Bring
+them off on board as quickly and as quietly as possible. No one will
+take any notice of the boat in the creek. Oh! and tell Mr. Lacy to be
+dead sure not to bring anything in the way of even a small bag with
+him--Joe D'Acosta might wonder. I'll settle the hotel bill later on. Are
+you clear?"
+
+"Clear as mud," replied Le Brun, a big, black-whiskered Guernsey man.
+
+"Then goodbye."
+
+The schooner's boat, manned by two hands only, pushed off, and then
+Revels turned to Otway.
+
+"Shall I heave short so as to be ready?"
+
+"Heave short, be d----d!" replied Otway testily. "No, just lie nice and
+quiet, and as soon as you have your passengers on board slip your cable.
+I'll see that your anchor is fished up for you. And even if you lost
+your anchor and a few fathoms of chain it doesn't matter against five
+hundred sovereigns. The people on shore would be sure to hear the sound
+of the windlass pawls, and there's a man here from Auckland--a
+detective--who might make a bold stroke, get a dozen native bullies and
+collar you. So slip, my boy, slip. There's a fine healthy breeze which
+will take you clear of the reef in ten minutes."
+
+The two men shook hands, and Otway stepped into his boat, which he
+steered in towards the principal jetty.
+
+Jumping out he walked along the roadway which led from Matafele to Apia.
+As he passed the British Consul's house he saw Mr. O'Donovan standing on
+the verandah talking to the Consul. He waved his hand to them, and
+cheerfully invited the detective to come along to "Johnnie Hall's" and
+play a game of billiards.
+
+Mr. O'Donovan, little thinking that Otway had a purpose in view, took
+the bait. The Consul knew Otway, and, in a measure, dreaded him, for the
+supercargo's knowledge of certain transactions in connection with the
+sale of arms to natives, in which he (the Consul) had taken a leading
+and lucrative part. So when he saw the supercargo of the _Tucopia_
+beckoning to O'Donovan he smiled genially at him, and hurriedly told the
+detective to go.
+
+"He's a most astute and clever young scoundrel, Mr. O'Donovan, and in a
+way we are at his mercy. But you shall have the four hundred pounds in
+the morning--not later than noon. This man Barton must be brought to
+justice at any cost."
+
+"Just so, sir; and you will get a hundred out of the business, any way,"
+replied O'Donovan, who had gauged the Consul's morality pretty fairly.
+
+As Otway and the detective walked towards the hotel known as "Johnny
+Hall's" the former said lazily--
+
+"Look here, Mr. O'Donovan. Are the skipper and myself to get those four
+hundred sovs to-morrow or not? To tell you the exact truth, I have a
+fair amount of doubt about your promise. Where are you going to get the
+money?"
+
+"That's all right, Mr. Otway. You're a business man. And you and the
+skipper will have your two hundred each before one o'clock to-morrow.
+The Consul is doing the necessary."
+
+"Right, my boy," said Otway effusively. "Now we'll play a game or two at
+Johnny's and have some fun with the girls."
+
+By eleven o'clock Mr. O'Donovan was comfortably half drunk, and Otway
+led him out on to the verandah to look at the harbour, shimmering under
+the starlight. They sat down on two cane lounges, and the supercargo's
+keen eye saw that Revel's schooner had gone. He breathed freely, and
+then brought Mr. O'Donovan a large whisky and soda.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the morning Mr. O'Donovan and Mr. William Johns, the British Consul,
+were in a state of frenzy on discovering that Mr. and Mrs. Lacy had
+escaped during the night in the schooner _Solafanua_. The Consul knew
+that Otway was at the bottom of the matter, but dared not say so, but
+O'Donovan, who had more pluck and nothing to lose, lost his temper and
+came on board the _Tucopia_ just as she was being hauled up on the beach
+to get at the leak.
+
+"You're a dirty sweep," he said to Otway.
+
+The supercargo hit him between the eyes, and sent him down. Allen picked
+him up, dumped him into the boat alongside, and sent him ashore.
+
+When the _Tucopia_ lay high and dry on Apia beach Otway and old Bruce
+walked round under her counter and looked for the leak. As the skipper
+had surmised, a butt-end had started, but the gaping orifice was now
+choked and filled with a large piece of seaweed.
+
+"The prayer of one of God's ain ministers has saved us," said the Scotch
+mate, pointing upward.
+
+"No doubt," replied Otway, who knew that the good old man had heard
+nothing of what had happened.
+
+
+
+
+_The Man in the Buffalo Hide_
+
+
+Twelve years ago in a North Queensland town I was told the story of "The
+Man in the Buffalo Hide" by Ned D----. He (D----) was then a prosperous
+citizen, having made a small fortune by "striking it rich" on the
+Gilbert and Etheridge Rivers goldfields. Returning from the arid wastes
+of the Queensland back country to Sydney, he tired of leading an
+inactive life, and hearing that gold had been discovered on one of the
+Solomon Islands, he took passage thither in the Sydney whaling barque
+_Costa Rica_ packet, and though he returned to Australia without
+discovering gold in the islands, he had kept one of the most interesting
+logs of a whaling cruise it has ever been my fortune to read. The master
+of the whaleship was Captain J.Y. Carpenter, a man who is well known
+and highly respected, not only in Sydney (where he now resides), but
+throughout the East Indies and China, where he had lived for over thirty
+years. And it was from Captain Carpenter who was one of the actors in
+this twice-told tragedy, that D----heard this story of Chinese
+vengeance. He (D----) related it to me in '88, and I wish I could write
+the tale as well and vividly as he told it. However, I wrote it out for
+him then and there. Much to our disgust the editor of the little journal
+to whom we sent the MS., considered it a fairy tale, and cut it down to
+some two or three hundred words. I mention these apparently unnecessary
+details merely that the reader may not think that the tale is fiction,
+for two years or so after, Captain Carpenter corroborated my friend's
+story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was after the Taeping rebellion had been stamped out in blood and
+fire by Gordon and his "Ever Victorious Army," and the Viceroy (Li Hung
+Chang) had taken up his quarters in Canton, and was secretly torturing
+and beheading those prisoners whom he had sworn to the English
+Government to spare.
+
+Carpenter was in command of a Chinese Government despatch vessel--a
+side-wheeler--which was immediately under the Viceroy's orders. She was
+but lightly armed, but was very fast, as fast went in those days. His
+ship had been lying in the filthy river for about a week, when, one
+afternoon, a mandarin came off with a written order for him to get ready
+to proceed to sea at daylight on the following morning. Previous
+experience of his estimable and astute Chinese employers warned him not
+to ask the fat-faced, almond-eyed mandarin any questions as to the
+steamer's destination, or the duration of the voyage. He simply said
+that he would be ready at the appointed time.
+
+At daylight another mandarin, named Kwang--one of much higher rank than
+his visitor of the previous day--came on board. He was attended by
+thirty of the most ruffianly-looking scoundrels--even for Chinamen--that
+the captain had ever seen. They were all well armed, and came off in a
+large, well-appointed boat, which, the mandarin intimated with a polite
+smile, was to be towed, if she was too heavy to be hoisted aboard. A
+couple of hands were put in her, and she was veered astern. Then the
+anchor was lifted, and the steamer started on her eighty miles trip down
+the river to the sea, the mandarin informing the captain that he would
+name the ship's destination as soon as they were clear of the land.
+
+Most of Carpenter's officers were Europeans--Englishmen or
+Americans--and one or two of them who spoke Chinese, attempted to enter
+into conversation with the thirty braves, and endeavour to learn the
+object of the steamer's mission. Their inquiries were met either with a
+mocking jest or downright insult, and presently the mandarin, who
+hitherto had preserved a smiling and affable demeanour as he sat on the
+quarter-deck, turned to the captain with a sullen and ferocious aspect,
+and bade him remind his officers that they had no business to question
+the servants of the "high and excellent Viceroy."
+
+But though neither Carpenter nor any of his officers could learn aught
+about this sudden mission, one of their servants, a Chinese who was
+deeply attached to his master, whispered tremblingly to him that the
+mandarin and the thirty braves were in quest of one of the Viceroy's
+most hated enemies--a noted leader of the Taepings who had escaped the
+bloodied hands of Li Hung Chang, and whose retreat had been betrayed to
+the cruel, merciless Li the previous day.
+
+Once clear of the land, the mandarin, with a polite smile and many
+compliments to Carpenter on the skilful and expeditious manner in which
+he had navigated the steamer down the river, requested him to proceed to
+a certain point on the western side of the island of Formosa.
+
+"When you are within twenty miles of the land, captain," he said
+suavely, "you will make the steamer stop, and my men and I will leave
+you in the boat. You must await our return, which may be on the
+following day, or the day after, or perhaps longer still. But whether I
+am absent one, or two, or six days, you must keep your ship in the
+position I indicate as nearly as possible. You must avoid observation
+from the shore, you must be watchful, diligent, and patient, and, when
+you see my boat returning, you must make your engines work quickly, and
+come towards us with all speed. High commendation and a great reward
+from the serene nobleness of our great Viceroy--who has already
+condescended to notice your honourable ability and great integrity in
+your profession--awaits you." Then with another smile and bow he went to
+his cabin.
+
+As soon as the steamer reached the place indicated by the mandarin the
+engines were stopped. The boat, which was towing astern, was hauled
+alongside, and the thirty truculent "braves," with a Chinese pilot and
+the ever-smiling mandarin, got into her and pushed off for the shore.
+That they were all picked men, who could handle an oar as well as a
+rifle, was very evident from the manner in which they sent the big boat
+along towards the blue outline of the distant shore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For two days Carpenter and his officers waited and watched, the steamer
+lying and rolling about upon a long swell, and under a hot and brazen
+sun. Then, about seven o'clock in the morning, as the sea haze lifted, a
+look-out on the foreyard hailed the deck and said the boat was in sight.
+The steamer's head was at once put towards her under a full head of
+steam, and in another hour the mandarin and his braves were alongside.
+
+The mandarin clambered up on deck, his always-smiling face (which
+Carpenter and his officers had come to detest) now darkly exultant.
+
+"You have done well, sir," he said to the captain; "the Viceroy himself,
+when my own miserable worthlessness abases itself before him, shall know
+how truly and cleverly you and your officers (who shall be honoured for
+countless ages in the future) have obeyed the behests which I have had
+the never-to-be-extinguished honour to convey from him to you. There is
+a prisoner in the boat--a prisoner who is to be tried before those high
+and merciful judges whose Heaven-sent authority your valorous commander
+of the Ever Victorious Army has upheld."
+
+Carpenter, being a sailor man before all else, swallowed the mandarin's
+compliments for all they were worth, and I can imagine him giving a
+grumpy nod to the smiling minion of the Viceroy as he ordered "the
+prisoner" to be brought on deck, and the boat to be veered astern for
+towing.
+
+The official interposed oilily. There was no need, he said, to tow the
+boat to Canton if she could not be hoisted on board, and was likely to
+impede the steamer's progress. Some of his braves could remain in her,
+and the insignia of the Viceroy which they wore would ensure both their
+and the boat's safety--no pirates would touch them.
+
+The captain said that to tow such a heavy boat for such a long distance
+would certainly delay the steamer's arrival in Canton by at least six or
+eight hours. The mandarin smiled sweetly, and said that as speed was
+everything the most honourable navigator, whom he now had the privilege
+to address, and who was so soon to be distinguished by his mightiness
+the Viceroy, could at once let the boat which had conveyed his worthless
+self into the sunshine of his (the captain's) presence, go adrift.
+
+At a sign from Kwang, six of his cutthroats clambered down the side into
+the boat, which was at once cast oft; the steamer was sent along under a
+full head of steam, and the captain was about to ascend the bridge when
+the mandarin stayed him, and requested that a meal should be at once
+prepared in the cabin for the prisoner, who, he said, was somewhat
+exhausted, for his capture was only effected after he had killed three
+and wounded half a dozen of "the braves." So courageous a man, he added
+softly, whatever his offence might be, must not be allowed to suffer the
+pangs of hunger and thirst.
+
+Carpenter gave the necessary order to the steward with a sensation of
+pleasure, feeling that he had done the suave and gentle-voiced Kwang an
+injustice in imagining him to be like most Chinese officials--utterly
+indifferent and callous to human suffering. Then he stepped along the
+deck towards the bridge just as two of the braves lifted the prisoner to
+his feet, which a third had freed from a thong of hide, bound so tightly
+around them that it had literally cut into the flesh. His hands were
+tied in the same manner, and round his neck was an iron collar, with a
+chain about six feet in length which was secured at the end to another
+band around the waist of one of the "braves."
+
+As the prisoner stood erect, Carpenter saw that he was a man of
+herculean proportions and over six feet three or four inches in height.
+His arms and naked chest were cut, bleeding and bruised, and a bamboo
+gag was in his mouth; but what at once attracted the captain's attention
+and sympathy was the man's face.
+
+So calm, steadfast, and serene were his clear, undaunted eyes; so proud,
+lofty, and contemptuous and yet so dignified his bearing, as he glanced
+at his guards when they bade him walk, that Carpenter, drawing back a
+little, raised his hand in salute.
+
+In an instant the deep, dark eyes lit up, and the tortured, distorted
+mouth would have smiled had it not been for the cruel gag. But twice he
+bent his head, and his eyes did that which was denied to his lips.
+
+Captain Carpenter was deeply moved. The man's heroic fortitude, his
+noble bearing under such physical suffering, the tender, woman-like
+resignation in the eyes which could yet smile into his, affected him so
+strongly that he could not help asking one of the "braves" the
+prisoner's name.
+
+An insolent, threatening gesture was the only answer. But the prisoner
+had heard, and bent his head in acknowledgment. When he raised it again
+and saw that Carpenter had now taken off his cap, tears trickled down
+his cheeks. In another moment he was hurried along the deck into the
+cabin, and half a dozen "braves" stood guard at the door to prevent
+intrusion, whilst the gag was removed, and the victim of the Viceroy's
+vengeance was urged to eat. Whether he did so or not was never known,
+for half an hour afterwards he was removed to one of the state-rooms,
+where he was closely guarded by Kwang's cutthroats. When he was next
+seen by Carpenter and the officers of the steamer the gag was again in
+his mouth, but the calm, resolute eyes met theirs as it trying to tell
+them that the heroic soul within the tortured body knew no fear, and
+felt and appreciated their sympathy.
+
+On the afternoon of the third day after leaving Formosa the steamer
+ploughed her way up the muddy waters of the river, and came to an anchor
+off the city at a place which was within half a mile of the Viceroy's
+residence. The mandarin requested the captain to fire three guns, and
+hoist the Chinese flag at both the fore and main peaks.
+
+This signal was, so Kwang condescended to say, to inform His
+Illustriousness the Ever-Merciful Viceroy that he, Kwang, his crawling
+dependent, guided by Carpenter's high intelligence, and supreme and
+honoured skill as a navigator, had achieved the object which His
+Illustriousness desired.
+
+The captain listened to all this "flam," bowed his acknowledgments, and
+then suddenly asked the mandarin the prisoner's name.
+
+Again the fat, complacent face darkened, and almost scowled. "No," he
+replied sullenly, he himself "was not permitted" to know the prisoner's
+name. His crime? He did not know. When was he to be tried? To-morrow.
+Then he rose and abruptly requested the captain to ask no more
+questions. But, he added, with a smile, he could promise him that he
+should at least see the captive again.
+
+In a few minutes a boat came off, and the prisoner, closely guarded, and
+with his face covered with a piece of cloth, was hurried ashore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Four days had passed--days of heat so intense that even the Chinese crew
+of the steamer lay about the decks under the awning, stripped to their
+waists, and fanning themselves languidly. During this time the captain
+and his officers, by careful inquiries, ascertained that the unfortunate
+prisoner was a brother of one of the Wangs, or seven "Heavenly Kings,"
+who had led the Taeping forces, and that for a long time past the
+Viceroy had made most strenuous efforts to effect his capture, being
+particularly exasperated with him, not only for his courage in the
+field, and the influence he had wielded over the unfortunate Taepings,
+who were wiped out by Gordon and the Ever-Victorious Army, but also
+because he refused to accept Li Hung Chang's sworn word to spare his
+life if he surrendered; for well he knew that a death by torture awaited
+him. Gordon himself, it was said, revolver in hand, and with tears of
+rage streaming down his face, had sought to find and shoot the Viceroy
+for the cruel murder of other leaders who had surrendered to him under
+the solemn promise of their lives being spared.
+
+Late in the afternoon, a messenger came on board with a note to the
+captain. It was from the mandarin Kwang, and contained but a line.
+"Follow the bearer, who will guide you to the prisoner."
+
+An hour later Carpenter was conducted through a narrow door which was
+set in a very high wall of great thickness. He found himself in a garden
+of the greatest beauty, and magnificent proportions. Temples and other
+buildings of the most elaborate and artistic design and construction
+showed here and there amid a profusion of gloriously-foliaged trees and
+flowering shrubs. No sound broke the silence except the twittering of
+birds; and not a single person was visible.
+
+The guide, who had not yet uttered a single word, now turned and
+motioned Carpenter to follow him along a winding path, paved with white
+marble slabs, and bordered with gaily-hued flowers. Suddenly they
+emerged upon a lovely sward of the brightest green, in the centre of
+which a fountain played, sending its fine feathery spray high in air.
+
+On one side of the fountain were a number of "braves" who stood in a
+close circle, and, as Carpenter approached, two of them silently stepped
+out of the cordon, brought their rifles to the salute, and the guide
+whispered to him to enter.
+
+Within the circle was Kwang, who was seated in his chair of office. He
+rose and greeted the captain politely.
+
+"I promised you that you should again see the criminal in whom you and
+your officers took such a deep and benevolent interest. I now fulfil
+that promise--and leave you." And, with a malevolent smile, he bowed and
+disappeared.
+
+The guide touched Carpenter's arm.
+
+"Look," he said in a whisper.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Within a few inches of a wavering line of spray from the fountain,
+purposely diverted so as to fall upon the grass, lay what appeared at
+first sight to be a round bundle tied up in a buffalo hide. A black
+swarm of flies buzzed and buzzed over and around it.
+
+"Draw near and look," said the harsh voice of the officer who commanded
+the grim, silent guard, as he stepped up to the strange-looking bundle,
+and waved his fan quickly to and fro over a protuberance in the centre.
+
+A black cloud of flies arose, and revealed a sight that will haunt
+Carpenter to his dying day--the purpled, distorted face of a living man.
+The eyelids had been cut off, and only two dreadful, bloodied, glaring
+things of horror appealed mutely to God. The victim's knees had been
+drawn up to his chin, and only his head was visible; for the fresh
+buffalo hide in which his body had been sewn, fitted tightly around his
+neck.
+
+Shuddering with horror, and yet fascinated with the dreadful spectacle,
+Carpenter asked the officer how long the prisoner had been tortured.
+
+"Four days," was the reply.
+
+For the buffalo, the hide of which was to be the prisoner's death-wrap,
+was in readiness the moment the steamer arrived, and ten minutes after
+the signal was hoisted, the creature was killed, the hide stripped off,
+and the prisoner sewn up in it, only his head being left free.
+
+Then he was carried to a heated room, so that the hide should contract
+quickly. From there he was taken to the fountain, where his eyelids were
+cut off, and then he was laid upon the ground, his mouth just within a
+few inches of a spray from the fountain.
+
+And the Viceroy came, saw, approved, and smiled, and assigned to Kwang
+the honoured post of watching his hated enemy die under slow and
+agonising torture. To attract the flies, honeyed water was applied to
+the prisoner's shaven head and face. And the guards, now and then as his
+thirst increased, offered him brine to drink.
+
+"He is still alive," the brutal-faced Tartar officer said genially, as
+he touched one of the dreadful eyeballs, and the poor, tortured
+creature's lips moved slightly.
+
+Sick at heart and almost overcome with horror, Captain Carpenter, with
+quickened footsteps, passed through the cordon of guards, and followed
+his guide from the dreadful spot.
+
+In a few minutes he was without the wall, and a sigh of relief broke
+from him as he set out towards the river.
+
+
+
+
+A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS
+
+(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)
+
+
+
+
+
+_A Cruise in the South Seas_
+
+(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)
+
+
+The traveller who makes a hurried trip in an excursion steamer through
+the Cook, Society, Samoan, or Tongan Islands has but little opportunity
+of seeing anything of the social life of the natives, or getting either
+fishing or shooting; for it is but rarely that the vessel remains for
+more than forty-eight hours at any of the ports visited. Personally, if
+I wanted to have an enjoyable cruise among the various island groups in
+the South Pacific I should avoid the "excursion" steamer as I would the
+plague. In the first place, one sees next to nothing for his passage
+money if he fatuously takes a ticket in either Sydney or New Zealand for
+"a round trip to Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and back." Certainly, he will
+enjoy the sea voyage, for in the Australasian winter months the weather
+in the South Seas is never very hot, and cloudless skies and a smooth
+sea may almost be relied upon from April until the end of July. At such
+places as Nukualofa, the little capital of the Tonga Islands, an
+excursion steamer will remain for perhaps forty hours; at Apia, in
+Samoa, forty-eight hours; and at Papeite, the capital of the French
+island of Tahiti, forty-eight hours. At the two latter places the
+traveller will be charmed by the lovely scenery, and disgusted by the
+squalid appearance of the natives; for within the last ten years great
+changes have occurred, and the native communities inhabiting the island
+ports, such as Apia and Papeite, have degenerated into the veriest
+loafers, spongers, and thieves. The appearance of a strange European in
+any of the environs of Apia is the signal for an onslaught of beggars of
+all ages and both sexes, who will pester his life out for tobacco; if he
+says he does not smoke, they say a sixpence will do as well. If he
+refuses he is pretty sure to be insulted by some half-naked ruffian, and
+will be glad to get back to the ship or to the refuge of an hotel. And
+yet, away from the contaminating influences of the town the white
+stranger will meet with politeness and respect wherever he
+goes--particularly if he is an Englishman--and will at once note the
+pleasing difference in the manners of the natives. Yet it must now be
+remembered that Samoa--with the exception of the beautiful island of
+Tutuila--is German territory, and German officials are none too effusive
+to Englishmen or Americans--in Samoa.
+
+But if any one wants to spend an enjoyable time in the South Seas let
+him avoid the "excursion ship" and go there in a trading steamer. There
+are several of these now sailing out of Australasian ports, and there is
+a choice of groups to visit. If a four months' voyage is not too long, a
+passage may be obtained in a small, but fairly fast and comfortable
+boat of 600 tons sailing from Sydney, which visits over forty islands in
+her cruise from Niue or Savage Island, ten days' steam from Sydney, to
+Jaluit in the Marshall Islands. But this particular cruise I would not
+recommend to any one in search of a variety of beautiful scenery, for
+nearly all of the islands visited are of the one type--low-lying sandy
+atolls, densely verdured with coco-palms, and very monotonous from their
+sameness of appearance. Their inhabitants, however, are widely different
+in manners, customs, and general mode of life. To the ethnologist such a
+cruise among the Ellice, Gilbert, and Marshall Islands would no doubt be
+full of interest; but to the traveller in search of either beautiful
+scenery or sport (except fishing) they would be disappointing.
+
+Let us suppose that the intending traveller desires to make a stay of
+some two or three months in the Samoan Group. He can reach there easily
+enough from Sydney or Auckland by steamer once a month, either by one of
+the Union Steamship Company's regular traders or by one of the San
+Francisco mail boats. From Sydney the voyage occupies eight days, from
+Auckland five. The outfit required for a three or four months' stay is
+not a large one--light clothing can be bought almost as cheaply in Samoa
+as in Sydney, a couple of guns with plenty of ammunition (for cartridges
+are shockingly dear in the Islands), a large and varied assortment of
+deep-sea tackle, a rod for fresh-water or reef fishing, and a good
+waterproof and rugs for camping out, as the early mornings are sometimes
+very chilly. And there is one other thing that is worth while taking,
+even though it may cost from L30 to L50 or so in Sydney--a good
+secondhand boat, with two suits of sails. Thus provided the sportsman
+can sail all along the coasts of Savaii and Upolu, and be practically
+independent of the local storekeepers. To hire a boat is very expensive,
+and to travel in native craft is horribly uncomfortable, and risky as
+well. And such a boat can always be sold again for at least its cost.
+
+A stay of two or three days, or at most a week, in Apia is quite long
+enough, and the stranger will get all the information he requires about
+the outlying districts from the Consuls or any of the old white
+residents. Such provisions as are needed--tea, sugar, flour, biscuits,
+tinned or other meats, &c.--can be had at fairly cheap rates; but a
+large stock should be taken, for, besides the keep of the native crew
+of, say, four men, it must always be borne in mind that a white visitor
+is expected to return the hospitality he receives from the native chiefs
+by making a present, and the Samoans are particularly susceptible to the
+charms of tinned meats, sardines, salmon, and _falaoa_ (bread or
+biscuit). That such a return should be made is only just and natural,
+though I am sorry to say that very often it is not. Then, again, it is
+very easy to stow away in the trade box in the boat eight or ten pieces
+of good print, cut off in pieces of six fathoms (which is enough to make
+a woman's gown), about 30 lbs. of twist negrohead tobacco (twenty to
+thirty sticks to the pound), half a gross of lucifer matches, and such
+things as cotton, scissors, combs, &c., and powder, caps, and a bag of
+No. 3 shot for pigeon shooting. Now, this seems a lot of articles for a
+man to take on a short Samoan _malaga_ (journey), but it is not, and for
+the L50 which it may cost for such an outfit (exclusive of the boat and
+crew's wages) the traveller will see more of the people and their mode
+of life, be more hospitably received, and spend a pleasanter time than
+if he were cruising about in a 1,000-ton yacht. The wages or boatmen and
+native sailors in Samoa are usually $15.00 per month, but many will
+gladly go on a _malaga_ (the general acceptance of the word is a
+pleasure trip) for much less, for there is but little work, and much
+eating and drinking. But, as sailors, the Samoans are a wretched lot,
+and the local living Savage Islanders, as the natives of Niue Island are
+called, are far better, especially if there is any wind or a beat to
+windward in a heavy sea. These Savage Island "boys" can always be
+obtained in Apia. They are good seamen and very willing to work; but
+they have to be fed entirely by their white employer, for the Samoans
+seldom make a present of food to a crew of Niue boys, for whom they
+profess a contempt and designate _au puaa_--_i.e._, pigs.
+
+The Samoan Group consists of five islands, trending from west by north
+to east by south. The two largest are Upolu and Savaii. Tutuila, and the
+Manua Group of three islands are too far to the windward to attempt in a
+small boat against the south-east trades. And it would take quite three
+months to visit the principal villages on the two large islands, staying
+a few days at each place.
+
+The best plan is to make to windward along the coast of Upolu after
+leaving Apia. A large boat cannot be taken all the way inside the reef,
+owing to the many coral patches which, at low tide, render this course
+impracticable. The first place of any importance is Saluafata, fifteen
+miles from Apia (I must mention that Apia is in the centre of Upolu, and
+on the north side), then Falifa|, an exquisitely pretty place, and
+then Fa|goloa Bay and village, eight miles further on. This is the
+deepest indentation in Samoa, except the famous Pa|go Pa|go Harbour
+on Tutuila, and the scenery is very beautiful. After leaving Fa|goloa,
+the open sea has to be taken, for there is now no barrier reef for ten
+miles, where it begins at Samusu village, to the towns of Aleipata and
+Lepa|, two of the best in the group, and inhabited by cleanly and
+hospitable people. This is the weather point of Upolu, and after leaving
+Lepa| the boat has a clear run of over sixty miles before the glorious
+trades to the lee end of the island--that is, unless a stay is made at
+the populous towns of Falealilli, Sa|fata, Lafa|ga, and Falelatai,
+on the southern coast. The scenery along this part of the island is
+enchanting, but sudden squalls at night-time are sometimes frequent,
+from December to March, and 'tis always advisable to run into a port at
+sunset.
+
+Two miles off the lee end of Upolu is the low-lying island of Manono,
+which is, however, enclosed in the Upolu barrier reef. It is only about
+three miles in circumference, exceedingly fertile, and is the most
+important place in the group, owing to the political influence wielded
+by the chiefly families who have always made it their home. A mile from
+Manono, and in the centre of the deep strait separating Upolu from
+Savaii, is a curiously picturesque spot, an island named Apolima.[17] It
+is an extinct crater, but has a narrow passage on the north side, and is
+inhabited by about fifty people, who are delighted to see any _papalagi_
+(foreigner) who is venturesome enough to make a landing there.
+
+Savaii is distant about ten miles from Upolu. Its coast is for the most
+part _itu papa_--i.e., iron bound--but there are five populous towns
+there--Palaulae, Salealua, Asaua, Matautu, and Safune. After making the
+round of Savaii, the boat has to make back to Manono, and then can
+proceed inside the reef all the way to Apia, making stoppages at the
+many minor villages which stud the shore at intervals of every few
+miles.
+
+These _malaga_ by boat along the coast or from one island to another are
+much in favour with many of the white residents of Samoa, who find their
+life in Apia very monotonous. European ladies frequently accompany their
+husbands, and sometimes quite a large party is made up. More than
+five-and-twenty years ago, when the writer was gaining his first
+experiences of Samoan life, it was his good fortune to be one of such a
+party, and a right merry time he had of it among the natives; for in
+those days, although there was party warfare occasionally, the group
+was free from the savage hatreds and dissensions--largely fomented by
+the interference and intrigues of unscrupulous traders and incapable
+officials--which for the past ten or twelve years have made it
+notorious.
+
+In travelling in Samoa one need not always rely upon native hospitality.
+Though most of the white traders at the outlying villages nowadays make
+nothing beyond a scanty living, they are as a rule very hospitable and
+pleased to see and entertain white visitors as well as their poor means
+will allow, and in nine cases out of ten would feel hurt if they were
+ignored and the native teacher's house visited first; for between the
+average trader and the native teacher there is always a natural and yet
+reasonable jealousy. And here let me say a word in praise of the Samoan
+teacher--in Samoa. Away from his native land, in charge of a mission
+station in another part of Polynesia or Melanesia, he is too often
+pompous and overbearing alike to his flock and to the white trader. Here
+he is far from the control and supervision of the white missionaries,
+who only visit him twice in the year, and consequently he thinks himself
+a man of vast importance. But in Samoa his superiors are prompt to curb
+any inclination he may evince to ride the high horse over his flock or
+interfere with any matter not strictly connected with his charge. So, in
+Samoa, the native teacher is generally a good fellow, the soul of
+hospitality, and anxious to entertain any chance white visitor; and
+although the Samoans are not bigoted ranters like the Tongans or
+Fijians, and the teachers have not anything like the undue and improper
+influence over the people possessed by the native ministers in Tonga or
+Fiji, to needlessly offend one would be resented by the villagers and
+make the visitor's stay anything but pleasant. As for the white
+missionaries in Samoa, all I need say of them is that they are
+gentlemen, and that the words "Mission House" are synonymous in most
+cases with warm welcome to the traveller.
+
+Travelling inland in Savaii or crossing Upolu from north to south, or
+_vice-versa,_ is very delightful, though one misses much of the lovely
+scenery that unfolds itself in a panorama-like manner when sailing along
+the coast. One journey that can easily be accomplished in a day is that
+from Apia to Safata. Carriers are easily obtainable, and some splendid
+pigeon shooting can be had an hour or two after leaving Apia till within
+a few miles of Safata. Pigeons are about the only game to be had in
+Samoa, though the _manutagi_, or ring-dove, is very plentiful, but one
+hardly likes to shoot such dear little creatures. Occasionally one may
+get a wild duck or two and some fearful-looking wild fowls--the progeny
+of the domestic fowl. Wild pigs are not now plentiful in Upolu though
+they are in Savaii, but they are exceedingly difficult to shoot and the
+country they frequent is fearfully rough. In some of the streams there
+are some very good fish, running up to 2 lbs. or 3 lbs. They bite
+eagerly at the _ula_ or freshwater prawn, and are excellent eating; and
+yet, strange to say, very few of the white residents in the group even
+know of their existence. This applies also to deep-sea fishing; for
+although the deep water outside the reefs and the passages leading into
+the harbours teem with splendid fish, the residents of Apia are content
+to buy the wretched things brought to them by women who capture them in
+nets in the shallow water inside the reef. Once, during my stay on
+Manono, a young Manhiki half-caste and myself went out in our boat about
+a mile from the land, and in thirty fathoms of water caught in an hour
+three large-scaled fish of the groper species. These fish, though once
+familiar enough to the people of the island, are now never fished for,
+and our appearance with our prizes caused quite an excitement in the
+village, everyone thronging around us to look. And yet there are two or
+three varieties of groper--many of them weighing 50 lbs. or 60
+lbs.--which can be caught anywhere on the Samoan coast; but the Samoan
+of the present day has sadly degenerated, and, except bonito catching,
+deep-sea fishing is one of the lost arts. But at almost any place in the
+group, except Apia, great quantities of fish are caught inside the reefs
+by nets, and one may always be sure of getting a splendid mullet of some
+sort for either breakfast or supper.
+
+Let us suppose that a party of Europeans have arrived at a village, and
+are the guests of the chief and people generally. Food is at once
+brought to them, even before any visits of ceremony are paid, for the
+news of the coming of a party of travellers has doubtless been brought
+to the village the previous day by a messenger from the last
+stopping-place. The repast provided may be simple, but will be ample,
+baked pork most likely being the _piece de resistance,_ with roast
+fowl, baked pigeons, breadfruit (if in season), and yams or taro, with a
+plentiful supply of young drinking-coconuts. (Should the host be the
+local teacher, some deplorable tea and a loaf of terrible bread are sure
+to be produced.) This preliminary meal finished, the formalities begin
+by a visit from the chief and his _tulafale,_ or "talking-man,"
+accompanied by the leading citizens. The talking-man then makes a
+speech, welcoming the guests, and is by no means sparing of "buttery"
+phrases which indicate the intense delight, &c., of the inhabitants of
+the village at having the honoured privilege of entertaining such noble
+and distinguished visitors, &c. A suitable reply is made by the guests
+(through an interpreter, if no one among them can speak Samoan), and
+then follows a ceremonious brewing and drinking of kava. This is a most
+important function in Samoa, and to the stranger unaccustomed to the
+manner of making the beverage, the ordeal of drinking it is an
+exceedingly trying one. It is prepared as follows: The dried kava root
+is cut up in thin slices and handed to a number of young women, who
+masticate it and then deposit it in a large wooden _tanoa_, or bowl.
+Water is then added in sufficient quantity till the _tanoa_ is
+half-filled with a thin yellowish-green liquid, which is carefully
+strained by a thick "swab" of the beaten bark of the _fau_-tree. This
+straining operation is performed only by a very experienced lady, and is
+watched in respectful silence. Then the drink is handed round in a
+polished bowl of coconut-shell. But for a full description of all the
+details of a kava-drinking, let me commend my readers to the best and
+most charming book ever written on South Sea life, "South Sea Bubbles,"
+by the late Earl of Pembroke and Dr. Kingsley. Nowadays, however, many
+Samoan households, out of deference to European tastes, have the kava
+root grated instead of being chewed.
+
+The kava-drinking over, all stiffness and formality disappears for the
+time, and the visitors are surrounded by the villagers, eager to learn
+the latest news from Apia, and from the world abroad. The discussion of
+political matters always has a strong attraction for Samoans, who are
+anxious to learn the state of affairs in Europe, and their knowledge and
+shrewdness is surprising. Should there be any white ladies present, the
+brown ones make much of them. The Samoans are a fine, handsome race, and
+the faces and figures of many of the young women are very attractive;
+but the practice of cutting off their long, flowing black hair, and
+allowing it to grow in a short, stiff "frizz" is all too common, and
+detracts very much from an otherwise handsome and graceful appearance,
+especially when the hair is coated with lime in order to change its
+colour to red. Many of the men, particularly those of chiefly rank, are
+of magnificent stature and proportions, and their walk and carriage are
+in consonance.
+
+An announcement that the visitors intend to go pigeon shooting is warmly
+applauded, and each white man is at once provided with a guide, for,
+unless he has had experience of the Samoan forest, he will return with
+an empty bag, as, however plentiful the birds may be, their habit of
+hiding in the branches of the lofty _tamanu_ and _masa'oi_-trees render
+them difficult of detection. The natives themselves are very good shots,
+and very rarely fail to bring down a bird, even when nothing more than a
+scarlet leg or a blue-grey feather is visible. The guns they use are
+very common, cheap German affairs, but are specially made for Samoa,
+being very small bored and long in the barrel. The best time is in the
+early morning and towards the cool of the evening, when the birds are
+feeding on _masa'oi_ and other berries; during the heat of the day they
+seldom leave their perches, though their deep crooning note may be heard
+everywhere. In the mountainous interiors of Upolu and Savaii there is
+but little undergrowth; the ground is carpeted with a thick layer of
+leaves, dry on the top, but rain and dew-soaked beneath, and simply to
+breathe the sweet, cool mountain air is delightful. At certain times of
+the year the birds are very fat, and I have very often seen them
+literally burst when striking the ground after being shot in high trees.
+Their flavour is delicious, especially if they are hung for a day. I may
+here remark that, in New Britain, precisely the same species of pigeon
+is very often quite uneatable through feeding upon Chili berries, which
+in that island grow in profusion. In shooting in a Samoan forest one has
+nothing to fear from venomous reptiles, for, although there are two or
+three kinds of snakes, they are rarely ever seen and quite harmless.
+Scorpions and centipedes--the latter often six inches in length--there
+are in plenty, but these detestable vermin are more common in European
+habitations than in the bush. At the same time, mosquitoes are a
+terrible annoyance anywhere in the vicinity of water, and delight in
+attacking the tender skin of the stranger. Then, again, beware of
+scratching any exposed part of the skin, for, unless it is quickly
+covered by plaister or otherwise attended to, an irritating sore, which
+may take months to heal, will often result.
+
+There are, during the visit of a travelling party to a Samoan town, no
+fixed times for meals. You are expected to eat much and often. During
+the day there will be continuous arrivals of people bringing baskets of
+provisions as presents, which are formally presented--with a speech. The
+speech has to be responded to, and the bringers of the presents treated
+politely, as long as they remain, and they remain until their
+curiosity--and avarice--is satisfied. A return present must be sent on
+the following day; for although Samoans designate every present of food
+or anything else made to a party of visitors as an "alofa"--_i.e.,_ a
+gift of love--this is but a hollow conventionalism, it being the
+time-honoured custom of the country to always give a _quid pro quo_ for
+whatever has been received. Yet it must not be imagined that they are a
+selfish people; if the recipients of an "alofa" of food are too poor to
+respond otherwise than by a profusion of thanks, the donors of the
+"alofa" are satisfied--it would be a disgrace for their village to be
+spoken of as having treated guests meanly.
+
+After evening service--conducted on week-days in each house by the head
+of the family--another meal is served. Then either lamps or a fire of
+coconut-shells is lit, and there is a great making of _sului_, or
+cigarettes of strong tobacco rolled in dry banana leaf, and there is
+much merry jostling and shoving among the young lads and girls for a
+seat on the matted floor, to hear the white people talk. A dance is sure
+to be suggested, and presently the _fale po-ula,_ or dance-house, is lit
+up in preparation, as the dancers, male and female, hurry away to adorn
+themselves. Much has been said about the impropriety of Samoa dancing by
+travellers who have only witnessed the degrading and indecent
+exhibitions, given on a large scale by the loafing class of natives who
+inhabit Apia and its immediate vicinity. The natives are an adaptive
+race, and suit their manners to their company, and there are always
+numbers of sponging men and _paumotu_ (beach-women) ready to pander to
+the tastes of low whites who are willing to witness a lewd dance. But in
+most villages, situated away from the contaminating influences of the
+principal port, a native _siva_, or dance, is well worth witnessing, and
+the accompanying singing is very melodious. It is, however, true, that
+on important occasions, such as the marriage of a great chief, &c., that
+the dancing, decorous enough in the earlier stages of the evening,
+degenerates under the influence of excitement into an exhibition that
+provokes sorrow and disgust. And yet, curiously enough, the dancers at
+these times are not low class, common people, but young men and women
+of high lineage, who, led by the _taupo_, or maid of the village, cast
+aside all restraint and modesty. In many of the dances the costumes are
+exceedingly pretty, the men wearing aprons made of the yellow and
+scarlet leaves of the _ti_ or dracoena plant, with head-dresses formed
+of pieces of iridescent pearl-shell, intermixed with silver coins and
+scarlet and amber beads, and the hair of both sexes is profusely adorned
+with the scarlet flowers of the hibiscus, while from their necks depend
+large strings of _sea-sea, masa'oi,_ and other brightly-coloured and
+sweet-smelling berries. Of late years the Tahitian fashion of wearing
+thick wreaths of orange or lemon blossoms has come into vogue.
+
+Before concluding these remarks upon Samoa, I must mention that the
+climate is very healthy for the greater part of the year; but in the
+rainy season, December to March, the heat is intense, and sickness is
+often prevalent, especially in Apia. Still fever, such as is met with in
+the New Hebrides and the Solomon Group, "the grave of the white man in
+the South Seas," is unknown, and one may sleep in the open air with
+impunity. Before setting out from Apia the services of a competent
+interpreter should be secured--a man who thoroughly understands the
+Samoan _customs_ as well as the language. Plenty of reliable half-castes
+can always be found, any one of whom would be glad to engage for a very
+moderate payment. Too often the pleasures of such a trip as I have
+described have been marred by the interpreter's lack of tact and
+knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of the various
+districts and villages. The mere fact of a man being able to speak the
+language fairly well is not the all in all; for the Samoans are a highly
+sensitive people, and the omission by the interpreter of a chief's
+titles, &c., when the guests are responding through him to an address of
+welcome, would be considered "shockingly bad form."
+
+But the reader must not imagine that the Samoan Group is the only one in
+the South Pacific where an enjoyable holiday may be spent. The French
+possession of the Society Islands, of which the pretty town Papeite, in
+the noble island of Tahiti, is the capital, rivals, if not exceeds,
+Samoa in the magnificence of its scenery, and the natives are a highly
+intelligent race of Malayo-Polynesians who, despite their being citizens
+of the French Republic, never forget that they were redeemed from
+savagery by Englishmen, and a _taata Peretane_ (Englishman) is an
+ever-welcome guest to them. The facilities for visiting the different
+islands of the Society Group are very good, for there is quite a fleet
+of native and European-owned vessels constantly cruising throughout the
+archipelago. To cross the island of Tahiti from its south-east to its
+north-west point is one of the most delightful trips imaginable. Then
+again, the Hervey or Cook's Group, which consist of the fertile islands
+of Mangaia, Rarotonga, Atui, Aitutaki, and Mauki, are well worth
+visiting. The people speak a language similar to that of Tahiti, and
+they are a fine, hospitable race, albeit a little over-civilised. Both
+of these groups can be reached from Auckland by sailing vessels, but
+not direct from Sydney. As for the lonely islands of the North Pacific,
+they are too far afield for any one to visit but the trader or the
+traveller to whom time is nothing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+1: Literally, "clear crony."
+
+2: Port.
+
+3: Happiness.
+
+4: A libertine, profligate.
+
+5: My love to you, Pakia; are you well?
+
+6: White foreigners.
+
+7: Frank.
+
+8: Small-pox.
+
+9: An accordion.
+
+10: Idler, gad about--a Samoan expression.
+
+11: German.
+
+12: The Tokelau and Ellice Islanders are much amused at the white man's
+    method of hauling in a heavy fish hand _over_ hand. This to them is
+    "_faka fafine_"--i.e., like a woman.
+
+13: Cayse.
+
+14: NOTE BY THE PUBLISHER.--This incident is related by the author in
+    "By Reef and Palm" under the title of "The Rangers of the Tia Kau."
+
+15: PUBLISHER'S NOTE.--This Alan Strickland is the "Allan" who has so
+    frequently figured in the author's other tales of South Sea life,
+    notably in the works entitled "By Reef and Palm" and "The Ebbing of
+    the Tide."
+
+16: Councillors.
+
+17: _Apo! lima_! "Be quick with your hand!" The passage is narrow and
+    dangerous, even for canoes, and the steersman, as he watches the
+    rolling surf, calls out _Apo, lau lima_! to his crew--an expression
+    synonymous to our nautical, "Pull like the devil!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore,
+and Other Stories, by Louis Becke
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