8th.—Remained all day and left at night. A long reef, and much trouble in getting Tin Jack's things clear of the ship. Heard the labour brig Cito had been landing rifles and cartridges. Tin Jack gone; he left late in the afternoon, the boat taking him to the reef, where we could see him being carried over it on a native's back. There were still fifty bags of copra to come on board; these were packed out to the boat on the backs of natives and our black boys. Mr. Henderson gave Tin Jack two black pigs and a very fine, handsome mat; I gave him a supply of medicines carefully labelled, and a pillow with an extra case. When we left we blew the steam-whistle in farewell, burned a blue light, and let off two rockets, to which he responded with a rocket from the shore. One of our rockets was let off by the captain (who is quite ill) on the bridge. It shot at us and fire was sputtering all about the bridge, to our terror. A woman has been following me about all day trying to get me to adopt her little half-caste boy. She tried to bribe me with a mat, which in the end she gave me as a present. I gave her a bottle of scent. Everybody bargaining for shells, even the black boys and Mr. Stoddard, the engineer. When the boat returned from landing Tin Jack it brought me from him an immense spear, very old and curious.[23]
9th.—Piru. I am disgusted by the apathy of our exiles. Except one woman, they did not even raise their heads to look on their native land. There was no excitement, no appearance of interest. The Samoan missionary and friends of his, all well-dressed, superior-looking people, came on board. The missionary demanded, in a high and mighty way, that paper, and envelopes, and pen and ink be brought him. Lloyd was working the typewriter to my dictation, which amused them all extremely. Mr. Clark, the missionary from Samoa, has just been here. To our disappointment we have missed him by only twenty-four hours. He has gone, they say, to Apemama, to try and persuade the King to allow them to land a missionary. I think he will not succeed. The King fears the power missionaries get over the people. The traders have also been on board, the braggart Briggs and a Mr. Villiero from the Argentine Republic. Mr. Villiero's father was Italian, his mother Tyrolese. He seems an intelligent, pleasant fellow, and I talked a long time with him. A few years ago, he tells me, a man died on this island who was once secretary to Rajah Brooke. He asked to bring his wife and his adopted daughter, a half-caste Tahitian named Prout, to see me.
I was talking to the two traders to-day when Briggs said that he used to carry the lepers from Honolulu to Molokai. "Did he know Father Damien?" I asked. After much searching in his memory, at last he said he did. "A Catholic priest he was, who seemed to be all right when I knew him, but some pretty ugly stories have come out about him since in Honolulu, I understand." I gave them Louis's pamphlet without a word more.
The tides very low; there is a good deal of copra here, and our black boys worked last night until two in the morning, and to-night they expect to be up still later. One of the black boys is ill with a sore throat, headache, and diarrhœa. We gave him some castor-oil and laudanum, not knowing what else to do. The captain very weak, indeed, with intense headache, sickness, and an intolerable burning in his stomach. There is an odd dryness of his skin, not like fever. He has taken no nourishment but barley-water for days. Louis is better, the hæmorrhage having stopped.
10th.—Still lying off Piru. Mr. Hird came back yesterday with a sickening account of the man Blanchard who was supposed to be implicated in what was called "the Jim Byron poisoning case." Blanchard has contracted some terrible disease which makes it necessary for him to lift up his eyelids with his fingers when he wishes to look at one, and has swelled his nose to a monstrous size. Blanchard is, he says, an American, and when he first met the man, some years ago, had some pretentions of being a gentleman, but has now fallen to a state of degradation that is horrible. Blanchard spoke of the murder and confessed that he knew it was to be done and that he was there when it was done.
11th.—Still at Piru at ten o'clock P.M. Mr. Villiero has come on board with his wife, a handsome young woman, to whom I gave a wreath, some lollies for the children (all adopted, her own being dead), and a piece of lace. A little later Mr. Hird brought in several traders and gave them luncheon.
Lifting anchor.
12th.—Left Piru last night, arriving at Noukanau this morning. We carry with us a native man, as an exile, to this island. The Samoan native missionaries told their people that for certain crimes it was allowable to kill the offender. Such a case occurred, and the guilty person, who richly deserved his fate, was put to death. Then the native missionaries said that the taking of life called for capital punishment. Fortunately, at this juncture, a white missionary from Samoa appeared in the missionary ship, and it was arranged that the avenger be exiled for an indefinite period. As this man has large possessions in Noukanau, it is to be hoped that he may not experience much discomfort. He is a fine-looking, respectable man of early middle age and had his family with him.
The ship all morning has been filled with crowds of natives (among them the inevitable leper with elephantiasis), all chattering like monkeys. I have bought from them three pronged shark's-tooth spears, one for a striped undershirt, the other two for a couple of patterns apiece of cotton print. I also bought a mat with rows of openwork running through it, just like hemstitching, and for a florin I got an immense necklace of human teeth. A little while ago, in some of these islands, especially Maraki, a good set of teeth was a dangerous possession, as many people were murdered for them. I trust mine were honestly come by—at least taken in open warfare.