Kala-hoi showed his still white and perfect teeth in a smile.
“Ah, why? Because, O friend, this is mine own land. I am, as thou knowest, of Maui, in Hawaii, and though for thirty and nine years have I lived in Samoa, yet now that my wife and two sons are dead, I would be by myself. This land, which measures two hundred fathoms on three sides, and one hundred at the beach, was given to me by Mauga, King of Tutuila, because, ten years ago, when his son was shot in the thigh with a round bullet, I cut it out from where it had lodged against the bone.”
“How old are you, Kala-hoi?”
“I know not. But I am old, very old. Yet I am young—still young. I was a grown man when Wilkes, the American Commodore, came to Samoa. And I went on board the Vincennes when she came to Apia, and because I spoke English well, le alii Saua ('the cruel captain'), as we called him,{*} made much of me, and treated me with some honour. Ah, he was a stern man, and his eye was as the eye of an eagle.”
* Wilkes was called “the cruel captain” by the Samoans on
account of his iron discipline.
Marsh nodded acquiescence. “Aye, he was a strong, stern man. More than a score of years after thou hadst seen him here in Samoa, he was like to have brought about a bloody war between my country and his. Yet he did but what was right and just—to my mind. And I am an Englishman.”
Kala-hoi blew a stream of smoke through his nostrils.
“Aye, indeed, a stern man, and with a bitter tongue. But because of his cruelty to his men was he punished, for in Fiji the kai tagata (cannibals) killed his nephew. And yet he spoke always kindly to me, and gave me ten Mexican dollars because I did much interpretation for him with the chiefs of Samoa.... One day there came on board the ship two white men; they were papalagi tàfea (beachcombers) and were like Samoans, for they wore no clothes, and were tatooed from their waists to their knees as I am. They went to the forepart of the ship and began talking to the sailors. They were very saucy men and proud of their appearance. The Commodore sent for them, and he looked at them with scorn—one was an Englishman, the other a Dane. This they told him.
“'O ye brute beasts,' he said, and he spat over the side of the ship contempt. 'Were ye Americans I would trice ye both up and give ye each a hundred lashes, for so degrading thyselves. Out of my ship, ye filthy tatooed swine. Thou art a disgrace to thy race!' So terrified were they that they could not speak, and went away in shame.”
“Thou hast seen many things in thy time, Kala-hoi.”