At another time some natives had been "waking" a corpse; tired out, they all fell asleep except a single man who acted as "watcher." By and by he, too, dropped off. The party were awakened by a great noise. The watcher explained that he had been napping and suddenly opened his eyes to behold the dead man sitting up. "A corpse sitting up just like this!" he exclaimed indignantly; "but I was equal to him; I ran at him and knocked him down, and now he's decently quiet again." And so he was, dead as a door-nail from the blow he had received.
Another thing Mr. Hird saw in Penrhyn. A very excellent man, but a strict disciplinarian, died and his family were sore troubled by the appearance of his ghost. They had suffered enough from his severity during his lifetime, and were terrified lest his spirit had returned to keep them up to the standard he had marked out for them. The day after the apparition was seen, the grave was opened, the body taken out, and the hole deepened till they came to water; the corpse was then turned over in the coffin and reburied face down.
At about five o'clock we weighed anchor and went through the exciting ordeal of the passage out of the lagoon, taking with us as passengers to Manihiki a woman and her two children. After we were quite away, outside the lagoon, a boat came after us with a quantity of timber from the wreck; this extra and unexpected work of taking the timber on board and stowing it away, instead of being received with grumbling by our black boys, was taken as gleefully as though it were a pleasant game of their own choosing.
The passengers slept on the after hatch with us. The baby cried in the night, and the mother quieted it by clapping her hands, yawning, meanwhile, with a great noise like the snarling of a wild beast; consequently I did not sleep well. For the first time the wind is aft and the ship very airless and close.
11th.—The captain's eyes, which have been dreadfully inflamed, are much better, thanks to an eye lotion from Swan, the chemist at Fiji, that we had in our medicine-chest.
In the evening, about nine, we made Manihiki. Mr. Henderson burned a blue light which was answered by bonfires on shore. We did not anchor, but lay off and on, as we were only to stay long enough to land our passengers. Louis wished to go on shore with the boat, but as it did not get off until ten he gave it up and went to bed. I made up a little parcel for him to send to Fani, and Mr. Hird carried it to her, a few sweeties carefully folded up in a Japanese paper napkin and tied with a bright-green ribbon. The child was in bed and asleep, but waked to receive her parcel which she resolutely declined to open until the next day, though earnestly persuaded by the whole family to let them have a peep inside. She appealed to Mr. Hird, who upheld her decision, so she returned to her mat and fell asleep holding her present in her hands.
I am trying to paint a small portrait of Tin Jack, who is a beautiful creature, but during the reluctant moments he poses he sits with his back toward me, his eye fixed on the clock, counting the minutes until his release. We took from the island a man, woman, and boy for Suwarrow, our next stopping-place. Mr. Hird had a singular dream, or rather vision, of the white trader in Suwarrow lying dead and ready for burial. He was so impressed by this that he took note of the time and feels very anxious.
13th.—I awoke at six, after a night's struggle with my mats, which the wind nearly wrested from me several times, to find we are just off Suwarrow. At breakfast Captain Henry presented me with a gorgeous hibiscus flower and Mr. Henderson laid beside my plate a couple of bananas and a vi-apple, products of the island. At present there are only six people living on Suwarrow; our three passengers, counting the boy, will make nine.
I went on deck to look at the island and was told that the flag was at half-mast. Sure enough, the trader was dead; the date of his death tallied with that of Mr. Hird's vision. The poor fellow was most anxious to be relieved the last time the ship was here, wherefore one of the native passengers was brought to take his place. A neat white paling fence enclosed the grave. I asked from what disease he died. "Sickness in here," was the answer, indicating the liver; "a long time he no stand up; all the time lie down. Pain—cry out—cry out—then die."