THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN

AUSTRALASIA

ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUTHS IN A JOURNEY TO

THE SANDWICH, MARQUESAS, SOCIETY, SAMOAN, AND FEEJEE ISLANDS, AND

THROUGH THE COLONIES OF NEW ZEALAND, NEW SOUTH WALES

QUEENSLAND, VICTORIA, TASMANIA, AND SOUTH AUSTRALIA

BY

THOMAS W. KNOX

AUTHOR OF "THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST" "IN SOUTH AMERICA"

"IN RUSSIA" AND "ON THE CONGO" "THE YOUNG NIMRODS"

"THE VOYAGE OF THE 'VIVIAN'" ETC.

Illustrated

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

1889

By THOMAS W. KNOX.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST. Five Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00 each. The volumes sold separately. Each volume complete in itself.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTH AMERICA. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Chili; with Descriptions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and Voyages upon the Amazon and La Plata Rivers. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with Accounts of a Tour across Siberia, Voyages on the Amoor, Volga, and other Rivers, a Visit to Central Asia, Travels Among the Exiles, and a Historical Sketch of the Empire from its Foundation to the Present Time. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS ON THE CONGO. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey with Henry M. Stanley "Through the Dark Continent." Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN AUSTRALASIA. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to the Sandwich, Marquesas, Society, Samoan, and Feejee Islands, and through the Colonies of New Zealand, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE VOYAGE OF THE "VIVIAN" TO THE NORTH POLE AND BEYOND. Adventures of Two Youths in the Open Polar Sea. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50.

HUNTING ADVENTURES ON LAND AND SEA. Two Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50 each. The volumes sold separately. Each volume complete in itself.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

☞ Any of the above volumes sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price.

Copyright, 1888, by Harper & Brothers.—All rights reserved.

PREFACE.

The first settlement in Australia was made in 1788; consequently the inhabitants of the great southern continent are this year celebrating their centennial. Three millions of people settled in five great colonies, possessing all the characteristics of an advanced civilization, with the unity developed by a common language and a common allegiance, and the rivalry that springs from the independence of each colony by itself, are uniting in the centennial celebration, and contrasting the Australia of to-day with that of one hundred years ago.

Previous to the discovery of gold in Australia, in 1851, Americans had but little knowledge of that far-away land. The opening of the auriferous fields attracted the attention of the whole civilized world to the antipodes, and many Americans joined the multitude that went thither in search of wealth. Since that time our relations with Australia have, year by year, grown more intimate. Railways across our continent and steamship lines over the broad Pacific have brought Sydney and Melbourne in juxtaposition to New York and San Francisco, and in this centennial Australian year we may almost regard the British colonies under the Southern Cross as our next-door neighbors.

The writer of this volume is not aware that any illustrated book descriptive of Australia and its neighboring colonies, New Zealand and Tasmania, by an American author, or from an American press, has ever yet appeared. Believing such a book desirable, he sent those youthful veterans of travel, Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson, over the route indicated on the title-page, with instructions to make careful note of what they saw and learned. Under the guidance of their mentor and our old friend Doctor Bronson they carried out their instructions to the letter, and the results of their observations will be found in the following pages. Trusting that the book will meet the favor that has been accorded to previous volumes of the "Boy Traveller" series, they offer their present work as their contribution to the Australian centennial, and hope that the boys and girls of their native land will find pleasure and profit in its perusal.

The method followed in the preparation of previous volumes of the series has been observed in the present book as far as it was possible to do so. The author's personal knowledge of the countries and people of Australasia has been supplemented by information drawn from many sources—from books, newspapers, maps, and other publications, and from numerous Australian gentlemen whom he has known or with whom he has been in correspondence. During the progress of the work he has kept a watchful eye on the current news from the antipodes, and sought to bring the account of the condition of the railways, telegraphs, and other constantly changing enterprises down to the latest dates.

Many of the books consulted in the preparation of "The Boy Travellers In Australasia" are named in the text, but circumstances made it inconvenient to refer to all. Among the volumes used are the following: Wallace's "Australasia," Forrest's "Explorations in Australia," Warburton's "Journey Across the Western Interior of Australia," Alexander's "Bush-fighting in the Maori War," Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria," Bodham-Whetham's "Pearls of the Pacific," Murray's "Forty Years of Mission Work in Polynesia," Cumming's "At Home in Fiji," Markham's "Cruise of the Rosario," Palmer's "Kidnapping in the South Seas," Buller's "Forty Years in New Zealand," "Australian Pictures," Harcus's "South Australia," Eden's "Australia's Heroes," Trollope's "Australia and New Zealand," and Nordhoff's "Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands."

The publishers have kindly allowed the use of illustrations that have appeared in Harper's Magazine and other of their publications, and these illustrations have admirably supplemented those that were specially prepared for the book. The maps on the front and rear covers were specially drawn from the best authorities, and are intended to embody the most recent explorations and the latest developments of the railway systems of the Australian colonies.

T. W. K.
New York, July, 1888.

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS

IN

AUSTRALASIA.

[CHAPTER I.]

FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO HONOLULU.—SIGHTS ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN.—A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.—NEARING THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.—THE MOLOKAI CHANNEL.—SURF-BEATEN SHORES OF OAHU.—ARRIVAL AT HONOLULU.—A PICTURESQUE PORT.—DISCOVERY AND HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.—CAPTAIN COOK.—HIS TRAGIC DEATH.—HOW THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CIVILIZED.—WORK OF THE MISSIONARIES.—SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.—PRESENT CONDITION OF THE POPULATION.—OLD CUSTOMS.—SIGHTS AND SCENES IN HONOLULU.—TARO AND POI.—A NATIVE DINNER.—THE COSTUMES OF THE ISLANDERS.—PECULIARITIES OF THE CLIMATE.—THE HULA-HULA AND OTHER DANCES.

"Land, ho!" from the mast-head.

"Where away?" from the bridge.

"Dead ahead, sir!" was the reply; but it was almost drowned by the buzz of excitement which the announcement produced. The passengers, who had been strolling about the decks or listlessly lounging in their chairs, rushed hastily forward, in their eagerness to catch a glimpse of the land which had been reported "dead ahead."

This happened on board the steamship Alameda, early one pleasant afternoon as she was nearing the Sandwich Islands on a voyage from San Francisco. There were three passengers who did not join in the scramble towards the bow of the ship, but remained quietly seated in their chairs. They had been through the experience of sighting land from a steamer at sea too many times to regard it as a novelty.

They were our old friends, Doctor Bronson and his nephews, Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson, whose experiences and adventures in various parts of the world are familiar to many American youths. Not content with what they had seen in Asia, Africa, and Europe, they were now bound on a voyage to the antipodes with the intention of adding another volume to the series in which their wanderings are recorded.[1]

ROYAL SCHOOL, HONOLULU.

It was on the eighth day of a voyage over the lovely azure waters of the broad Pacific that the Alameda neared the land, and many of her passengers half regretted that they were about to separate. The weather had been delightful, the breezes were light, the sky was nearly always clear, and the temperature high enough to make thick clothing uncomfortably warm, and an awning over the deck desirable. Since the second day out from San Francisco not a sail had been seen, as the sailing-ships take another track in order to obtain stronger and more favoring winds. Four or five whales had shown themselves, and a few schools of porpoises played around the vessel from time to time as though they wished to make the acquaintance of the strange monster.

THE PHYSALIA.

Flying-fish were numerous, and so were those curious denizens of the deep popularly known as "Portuguese men-of-war." One of the latter was caught by means of a bucket; a verdant passenger who admired its beautiful colors took it in his hand for a careful examination, but on feeling a stinging sensation he dropped it immediately. Doctor Bronson consoled him with the information that the scientific name of the Portuguese man-of-war is Physalis pelagica, and its power of stinging enables it to benumb its prey. It consists principally of an air-sac which floats it upon the water, and has long tentacles hanging down at various lengths. These tentacles are armed with stings; they paralyze any small fish that comes within their reach, and then act as fingers to sweep up the prize. It is a favorite trick of sailors to induce a novice to pick up a captured physalia, so that they may enjoy his haste in dropping it.

THE ISLAND OF OAHU.

As the Alameda continued her course the outline of the land grew more and more distinct, revealing the rugged volcanic cliffs of Oahu, and reminding the passengers of the burning mountains for which the Sandwich Islands are famous. The course of the vessel lay through the Molokai Channel, leaving Molokai Island on the left, and hugging closely against the surf-beaten shores of Oahu, on which the capital, Honolulu, is situated. Near the water there were occasional groves of cocoanut-trees; but on the whole the shore was less tropical in appearance than our young friends had expected to find it.

GENERAL VIEW OF HONOLULU.

Every eye was straining to catch a view of Honolulu; but when its position was pointed out most of the passengers were unable to discover any marked indications of the presence of a town. After a time the steamer made a sharp turn to the starboard, and passed through the narrow channel which leads into the pretty harbor of Honolulu. Then the town appeared rather suddenly in view; its houses surrounded by groves of palms and tamarind-trees, interspersed with other tropical growths in rich profusion. The harbor is a deep basin in a coral reef, and so perfectly landlocked that it is ordinarily as smooth as a mill-pond, and is safe in all winds that blow. There is good anchorage for ships, and when the Alameda entered there was a fleet of sufficient size in the port to give it a very prosperous appearance. Numerous small boats were darting about, and almost before the engines were stopped the little craft swarmed in great force about the steamer.

IN THE HARBOR OF HONOLULU.

Back of Honolulu rises a series of volcanic mountains three or four thousand feet high, and from the town itself to the foot of these mountains the ground rises in a gentle slope, so that the view from the harbor is an excellent one. Doctor Bronson called the attention of the youths to a valley opening through the mountains, and to the contrast between the cliffs and slopes, and the bright waters immediately around them. All agreed that the place was very prettily situated, and the view was a great relief after the monotonous voyage from San Francisco.

As soon as possible the party left the steamer and proceeded to the hotel, and, without waiting to see the rooms assigned to them, started out for a sight-seeing stroll. They desired to make the most of their time, as they expected to continue their journey in a week or ten days at farthest. The Alameda was to return to San Francisco as soon as she could land her cargo and receive another; the regular mail steamer for Australia would touch at Honolulu at the time indicated, and it was by this steamer they were to proceed southward.

QUEEN'S HOSPITAL, HONOLULU.

As they walked along the streets, accompanied by a guide whom they had engaged at the hotel, Doctor Bronson gave the youths a brief history of the Sandwich Islands, which Fred afterwards committed to paper lest it might escape his memory. Substantially it was as follows:

"The famous navigator Captain Cook has the credit of discovering these islands in 1778, but they were known to the Spaniards more than a century before that time. The death of Captain Cook served to bring the islands into prominence; he named them after Lord Sandwich, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty, but they are known here as the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii being the largest of the group."

"That is the island where Captain Cook was killed, is it not?" inquired one of the youths.

KEALAKEAKUA BAY, WHERE CAPTAIN COOK WAS KILLED.

"Yes," was the reply. "It was at Kealakeakua Bay, in sight of the great volcano of Mauna Loa. The famous navigator did not get along well with the natives, who, like nearly all savages, were addicted to thieving. One of his boats having been stolen, he determined to seize the King and hold him a prisoner until the boat was returned. For this purpose he landed with a lieutenant and nine men; the natives suspected his intentions, and a fight ensued, which resulted in his death."

"And they devoured him, it is said," Frank remarked.

"As to that," replied the Doctor, "there has been much dispute. Captain King, the successor of Cook, and historian of the expedition after the latter's death, positively declares that the body of Cook was eaten, along with the bodies of the sailors and marines who were killed at the same time. On the other hand, the islanders declare with equal positiveness that cannibalism did not exist here at that time; and though great indignities might have been perpetrated, the horrible accusation is untrue. At this distance of time it is impossible to say what happened, and we will dismiss the subject. But it is generally conceded that the great navigator owed his death to his severity in dealing with the natives, and his imprudence in venturing on shore with the small force which accompanied him.

"But we'll leave the famous captain at rest," continued the Doctor, "while we give our attention to more modern things. Great changes have taken place in the hundred years or so that have elapsed since Captain Cook's death. Then the people were savages and idolaters; now they are civilized and Christianized, and may be considered a harmless and kindly disposed race. Education is universal among them, hardly a native of Hawaii being unable to read and write. Every child is obliged to attend the public schools, and there is a special school-tax of two dollars on every voter, in addition to a general tax for educational purposes. Schools are in every part of the islands where there is any population, and the teachers are paid out of the taxes I have mentioned."

"I suppose the missionaries are to be credited with the spread of education here, are they not?" one of the youths asked.

MRS. THURSTON, ONE OF THE MISSIONARIES OF 1820.

"Yes," was the reply; "and there have been no more earnest and energetic missionaries anywhere in the world than those that came to the Hawaiian Islands. The first missionaries arrived here in 1820, and for thirty-three years the mission enterprise was supported by contributions in the United States and elsewhere. In that time the donations of Christian people in the United States for the conversion of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands amounted to more than nine hundred thousand dollars."

"What was done at the end of that time?" Fred asked.

"In 1853 the missionaries reported that the people of the Hawaiian Islands had been converted to Christianity, and that idolatry no longer existed among them. Then it was voted by the American Board of Missions that 'the Sandwich Islands, having been Christianized, shall no longer receive aid from this Board.' From that time the churches have been practically self-supporting, though they have received some aid from America. At present the Hawaiian Islands have a missionary society of their own which is sending missionaries and teachers into other islands of the Pacific; and they have a printing-office, where Bibles are printed in several Polynesian languages—just as Bibles were formerly printed in New York for the use of the Sandwich Islanders."

KAWAIAHO CHURCH—FIRST NATIVE CHURCH IN HONOLULU.

Here the guide interrupted them to point out Kawaiaho church, which he said was the first native church in Honolulu, a substantial and well-built edifice that reminded the strangers of many churches they had seen in the New England States. In reply to Frank's remark to this effect Doctor Bronson said that the most of the early missionaries came from Boston and its vicinity, and it was therefore to be expected that the churches would be of the New England pattern.

BETHEL CHURCH.

Fred asked if the church they were passing was the first ever built in the islands. The guide explained that it was the first native church, but not the first American one. That honor belongs to the Seamen's (or Bethel) church, which was sent from Boston in a whale-ship around Cape Horn; it was brought in pieces, and set up soon after the ship arrived here. Honolulu has been for a long time a great resort for whalemen, and about 1846 special attention was paid to their needs by the establishment of a Bethel church and society.

The most famous man in connection with this branch of the missionary enterprise was Rev. Mr. Damon, who obtained the reputation of an earnest friend of the seamen, and was generally called "Father Damon," in consequence of his paternal care and his kindness towards all who came within his influence. He established a Seamen's Home in connection with the church, and it has been of great use in keeping the sailors away from the evil influences that are found in most ocean ports.

NATIVE SCHOOL-HOUSE IN HONOLULU.

"Go where you will on these islands," said the Doctor, "you will find churches everywhere, and not far from each church there is a native school-house where the children are taught to read and write. On Sunday the churches are filled with worshippers, and there is no more devout people anywhere than on these islands. There are now more churches than are needed by the population, for the reason, not that there is any decline in religious zeal, but because of the decrease in the number of inhabitants. At the time of Captain Cook's discovery the islands were estimated to have a population of not far from two hundred thousand. Small-pox, measles, and other diseases have made terrible havoc, and at present the native population is little if any above fifty thousand. It has been declining with more or less rapidity ever since the beginning of the century, and the last census showed a considerable falling off since the one that preceded it.

THE COURT-HOUSE IN HONOLULU.

"Not only are the islanders diminishing in numbers," he continued, "but the people of to-day are said to be smaller in stature than those of a century ago. The missionaries and other old residents say that when they first came here they used to meet great numbers of natives of high stature and majestic figures, belonging generally to the old families of chiefs and nobles. Occasionally at this time you may see them, but not often."

NATIVE GENTLEMAN OF HONOLULU.

"I suppose the chiefs and nobles were of a different race," Frank remarked, "otherwise they would all be of the same general height."

"That was formerly supposed to be the case," was the reply, "and even now the theory is sustained by many people. But I believe the general opinion is that all were of the same race, and the superior development of the chiefs and nobles was due to their easier life and better food, which could hardly fail to have an effect through many generations."

One of the youths asked if the people received the missionaries kindly, and showed a desire to be instructed and civilized.

"In a general way they did," was the reply, "though that was by no means always the case. Some of the chiefs looked suspiciously upon the coming of the strangers, fearing, and not without reason, that their power would be diminished as their subjects became enlightened. The King was favorable to the work of the missionaries, and consequently the hostility of the chiefs could not be exercised with severity. Before the advent of the missionaries the Hawaiians had no written language. The missionaries reduced the language to writing, prepared school-books, a dictionary, a hymn-book, and a translation of a part of the Scriptures, all in the native tongue, and they trained the native teachers who were needed for the management of the schools then and afterwards established.

"In this way the missionaries gave the Hawaiian people the benefits of civilization, and year by year saw the old superstitions and customs disappearing. Some of them still remain, but not many; just as in New England you may to this day find people who believe in witchcraft, and all over the United States persons who have implicit faith in supernatural things. The Hawaiians are by no means perfect in their morals and beliefs, and you can find iniquity in Honolulu, just as you may find it in Boston or Philadelphia. Murder and theft were very common a hundred years ago; now the former crime is quite as rare as in the United States, and as for the latter, it is even more so. Nearly all the stealing in the islands is done by Chinese or other foreigners, and not by the natives."

Our friends passed near the court-house, which bore a marked resemblance to an American town-hall in a prosperous town, and stood at the edge of a well-kept garden. The Doctor remarked that court-houses and jails were some of the adjuncts of all civilized lands, and therefore they were needed in Hawaii as well as elsewhere. "But I am told," he continued, "that the majority of the inmates of the jail at Honolulu are of other races than the Hawaiian, and that Americans and English form a good proportion."

HAWAIIAN POI DEALER.

A little way beyond the court-house our friends met a man carrying two covered baskets slung at the ends of a short pole which rested on his shoulder. Frank turned to the guide and asked what the man was carrying.

"He's a poi peddler," was the reply, "and I wonder you have not met one before, as there are many of them. He peddles poi, and the people buy it to eat."

He then explained that poi is the national dish of the islands, and is made from the taro-root, which is the Sandwich Island form of the potato. He pointed out a taro-garden, and said that there were many such gardens in and around Honolulu, as the natives did not consider a home complete without one.

The taro-root is baked in an underground oven, and then mashed very fine, so that it would be like flour if the moisture were expelled. After it has been thoroughly mashed it is mixed with water, and in this condition is ready for eating. It has an agreeable taste when fresh, and most foreigners like it upon the first trial. For native use it is allowed to ferment; when fermented it suggests sour paste to the uneducated palate, and is nauseating to the novice. Natives greatly prefer it in this form, and a good many foreigners cultivate their taste until they too would rather have their poi sour than fresh.

Soon after the islands were settled by foreigners an ingenious Yankee saw a chance for making money by importing machinery for making poi, in place of the old form of hand-crushing. Now there are factories in various parts of the island where poi is made in large quantities, chiefly for the use of planters and other large consumers. It forms quite an article of export to other islands where Polynesian labor is employed, and especially to the guano islands, where nothing can be cultivated. A former king of Hawaii established a poi factory at Honolulu, and by so doing became very unpopular with his subjects, just as has been the case with other kings who have introduced labor-saving machinery into their dominions.

At dinner that evening Frank and Fred asked for poi and were promptly supplied. It was explained to them that the native way of eating it was to insert the forefinger in the dish, twirl it around until it was well coated with the sticky substance, and then draw the finger through the mouth. Both the youths concluded that they would allow the natives to monopolize that form of eating, which was hardly to be reconciled with civilized customs. They contented themselves with spoons, which answered their purpose completely.

HAWAIIANS AT A FEAST.

Poi, fish, and pork are the principal articles of food among the Hawaiians; but at a feast several articles are added that do not come into the daily bill of fare. The guide took Frank and Fred to a native luau, or festival, and pointed out the following dishes: poi, fish and pork, as already mentioned; baked ti-root, which bore a striking resemblance to molasses-cake, of which New Englanders are fond, and the resemblance included both appearance and taste; raw shrimps and limu, which is a sea-moss smelling and tasting very disagreeably to the novice; kuulaau, which is an agreeable compound of cocoanut and taro-root; paalolo, a combination of cocoanut and sweet-potato, of a sweetish taste; and two or three additional mixtures of the same sort. Then there were cuttle-fish raw and cooked, roasted dog, and a small quantity of pickled salmon, liberally dosed with red pepper. Fred suggested that as the salmon was imported, and therefore expensive, the red pepper was freely added in order that the article would be sparingly eaten.

NATIVE HAY PEDDLER.

The guide, who was a native, explained that the feast was for the purpose of enabling the giver to build a new house, and each guest was expected to pay fifty cents for his entertainment. He pointed out a calabash bowl lying on the ground as the receptacle of the money, as it was a matter of etiquette for the master not to receive the cash directly from the hands of his guests. The affair had been arranged some time beforehand, and the price of the feast was mentioned in the invitation. Everybody was in new clothes, it being one of the Hawaiian customs that every garment worn at a feast must be quite new, and a native would rather be absent from the entertainment than violate this point of etiquette. Five or six men who served as stewards were dressed exactly alike, each of them wearing a green shirt and red trousers, made for the occasion. In addition to this, they had green wreaths on their heads, and most of the persons present had their heads decked with flowers or leaves.

The diners sat on the ground, and as they took their places their portions of roast pig, neatly wrapped in ti-leaves, were distributed to them. They were expected to be satisfied with their allowance, and etiquette forbade their asking for more of this article, though they could help themselves freely to anything else. When the feast was over each one carried away whatever of his roast pork was unconsumed. The guide said it would be very impolite to leave any portion of it, and even the bones were carried away. The feeding was not done in a hurry; a native feast lasts for several hours, the guests pausing two or three times to get up a fresh touch of appetite, and occasionally walking about, singing, dancing, talking, or laughing, in order to increase the capacity of their stomachs.

Our young friends tasted some of the dishes, and each dropped a half-dollar in the calabash bowl that was designated as the receptacle of the contributions of the guests. They carried away their portions of roast pig, and gave the packages to some urchins whom they encountered a short distance from the scene of the feast. The latter immediately sat down to enjoy the toothsome delicacy, and no doubt imagined themselves to be for the time the most favored beings in the land. Their appearance indicated that roast pig did not often enter into their bill of fare, and the rapidity with which they attacked the contents of the packages showed that they had not dined.

Frank thought it must have been a great change for the people of the islands when they abandoned their old custom of going without clothing and adopted the dress of civilization. When it is remembered that a hundred years ago the islanders were naked savages, the remark of the youth is not to be wondered at. The missionaries say that in the early days the attempts of the natives to adopt European dress were decidedly ludicrous; they could not understand the necessity of three or more garments, but thought a single one sufficient to begin with. A hat, a shirt, and a pair of trousers were considered enough for three, and some of them used to argue that these garments were altogether too numerous for one individual, when there were so many others without anything.

DRESS OF HAWAIIAN WOMEN.

Fred made a sketch of a group of women, and afterwards procured several photographs showing how the feminine natives of the islands are ordinarily clad. On the back of the sketch he wrote as follows:

"The dress of the women can hardly be called picturesque, but after being seen a few times its oddity is not as apparent as at first. Most of the women go bareheaded, or with wreaths of leaves and flowers in their hair. Their dress hangs from the shoulders without being gathered in at the waist, and quite closely resembles the morning wrapper of civilized lands, though it is not so ornamental. Black, dark, and pink are the usual colors of the dress, but on festive occasions something gayer can be frequently seen. You would be surprised to see the grace and dignity with which the older women carry themselves, and I think much of it is due to the loosely flowing dress."

The climate is so mild that heavy clothing is not needed. The heat is of course greater in the lowlands than among the mountains, whose highest peaks are covered with snow for a considerable part of the year. Honolulu is said to be the hottest place in the kingdom, and thin clothing, but not the thinnest, is worn there the entire year. White is worn a great deal, but it is so easily soiled that a good many prefer to wear garments of blue serge, or blue or gray flannel. Flannel is desirable for the winter months, but the islands are so near the equator that the difference between winter and summer is not very great.

In December and January the temperature sometimes falls to 62° Fahrenheit in the early morning, but by noon, or 2 p.m., it generally reaches 75° or 76°, and remains between that point and 70° until midnight. In July the highest point reached is 86°, and on a few occasions 87°. The extreme range of the thermometer is not more than 26° or 28°, which makes it a very comfortable climate to live in. It is said to be an excellent one for persons suffering from pulmonary complaints, though it is somewhat debilitating for healthy men and women accustomed to the rigorous climate of the northern States of America.

Residents of the islands say there are regions among the mountains where the nights are invariably cool enough for a fire all the year round, while the days are never hot. Even in Honolulu the air is not as sultry as that of New York or Philadelphia in July and August, and the greatest heat experienced is almost always tempered by a breeze. There is more rain in winter than in summer, but there is no really dry season. It is a circumstance that strikes the stranger curiously that there is much more rain on the windward side of the islands than on the leeward; sometimes the former will have a great deal of rain, while the latter gets little or hardly any. The trade-wind controls the rainfall, and by ascertaining where it strikes a new-comer may have much or little rain accordingly as he selects his place of residence.

ANCIENT IDOLS OF HAWAII.

The guide told the youths that they could sit on the veranda of the hotel at Honolulu and see the rain fall every day, but without getting a drop within the limits of the city. "You may be here all day in the sunshine," said he; "but if you are going to the windward side of the island you must take your rubber overcoats. The showers that you see from the hotels are from the clouds that have been blown over the mountains, and as soon as you cross the range you will be in the midst of them."

Doctor Bronson said that the decrease in the population of the islands had been, by some people, attributed to the adoption of clothing by the natives. "It is argued," said he, "that the people are very careless, and have not learned the sanitary laws which govern the use of clothing. A native thinks nothing of lying down with his wet clothes upon him when he has been soaked by a rain or dipped in the surf; it is hard to make him understand that such a practice is dangerous, and many of the inhabitants have died of the severe colds contracted in this way."

GRASS HOUSE, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

In the outskirts of the city our friends came to a house which the guide said was a good specimen of the native dwelling, and they obtained permission to enter and examine it. It had a door, but no windows; was a single story in height, and its sides were made of upright sticks interwoven with palm-leaves, while the roof was thatched with grass. The floor was of solid earth covered with mats, and at one end there was a sort of platform raised a foot higher than the rest. This platform was the sleeping-place of the inmates, and was elevated in order to insure its freedom from dampness in case of a heavy rain. In front of the house was a bench, where one might sit in the shade during the afternoon, and where no doubt the owner idled away a considerable part of his time. The islanders are not fond of hard work, and in fact they have no occasion to labor as industriously as do the inhabitants of more rigorous regions.

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, HONOLULU.

Around Honolulu the expense of living is greater than it is away from the port, owing to the increased price of the products of the fields. In the country it may be said that a man who works two days in the week can support his family comfortably, especially if he is near the sea-coast, whence he can obtain a supply of fish at any time he chooses to go for them. Fishing, taro-planting, and making poi are his chief occupations, and to these he generally adds mat-weaving, which is neither difficult nor laborious. His wants are few and easily supplied, and it is no wonder that the islander displays an unwillingness to wear himself out in constant toil. The conditions of life do not require him to do so, and he lacks the ambition to accumulate a fortune solely for the sake of accumulating it.

HAWAIIAN DANCING-GIRLS.

After dinner the guide proposed that the strangers should witness a hula-hula, or native dance. It was quite unlike the dancing of European countries, consisting principally of more or less active movements of the limbs while the body of the dancer swayed from side to side. The dancers were girls dressed in short frocks like those worn by American school-girls; they had wreaths in their hair and around their ankles, and their dresses were loosely gathered in at the waist, where they were held by cords. The music was supplied by two men who struck their hands upon large calabashes and sang or chanted a low monotonous air. A very little of the dance satisfied the curiosity of the visitors, and they returned to the hotel at an early hour.

The Hawaiians have another dance, which can be seen at their festivals; it is performed by men and women, usually elderly people, and is accompanied by singing, in which all may join. Then there are dances for the younger people, but they are not generally practised, owing to the opposition of the missionaries, and possibly to the unwillingness of the people to indulge in active exercise unless they are paid for it. All the dances have descended from the days before the advent of the foreigners, and therefore have an interest for any one who desires to learn whatever he can about the history of the islanders.

[CHAPTER II.]

IN AND AROUND HONOLULU.—PUBLIC BUILDINGS.—THE THEATRE.—ROAD TO THE PALI.—A MAGNIFICENT VIEW.—VILLAS NEAR THE CITY.—GIRLS ON HORSE-BACK.—TARO-FIELDS.—THE WATER SUPPLY.—MOUNTAIN-PASS.—HAWAIIAN COW-BOYS.—HILO AND THE VOYAGE THITHER.—APOCHRYPHAL STORIES ABOUT THE RAIN.—SURF-SWIMMING.—THE GREAT VOLCANO OF KILAUEA.—OVER THE LAVA-FIELDS.—DIFFICULT ROADS.—THE VOLCANO HOUSE.—A DISTURBED NIGHT.—BURNING LAKES.—SIGHT-SEEING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.—TERRIFYING SCENES.—KILAUEA AND MAUNA LOA.—THE GREATEST VOLCANO IN THE WORLD.—HISTORIC ERUPTIONS.—CRATER OF HALEAKALA.—SUGAR CULTURE IN HAWAII, ITS EXTENT AND INCREASE.—OTHER INDUSTRIES.—RETURNING BY SCHOONER TO HONOLULU.—LEPER ISLAND OF MOLOKAI.—A DAY AMONG THE LEPERS.

The next day was devoted to excursions in the immediate vicinity of Honolulu, a carriage-drive through the principal streets of the town, a visit to the palace and other Government buildings, and two or three calls to present letters of introduction. The visit to the palace included an introduction to the King, Kalakaua, who received his visitors politely and devoted a short time to their entertainment. The conversation referred mainly to the United States, and barely touched upon matters connected with the islands.

In their drive about the city Frank and Fred found that Honolulu is a well-built town with narrow streets. The houses are mostly of wood, dropped down rather carelessly in many places, with little attempt at uniformity, and not much decoration. The amount of tropical verdure, which almost concealed many of the villas and detached residences in the side streets and outskirts of the place, recalled Ceylon and other regions near the equator which they had visited in their former travels. Frank thought he could readily imagine himself in the suburbs of Colombo, while Fred was inclined to close his eyes for a moment and think he had been transported on the enchanted carpet of the Arabian Nights to Batavia or Buitenzorg, in Java. In many of the court-yards fountains were playing, the drops of water sparkling in the bright sunshine, and adding materially to the beauty of the scene.

LAHAINA, ISLAND OF MAUI.

There are some fine residences in Honolulu, but none that would be considered of much consequence in a wealthy capital of Europe. The best buildings are the public ones, and in the list we must include the Hawaiian hotel, as it was built by the Government at an expense that was considered a heavy one for the country to bear. Near the hotel is the theatre, which is also a Government affair, and brings very little revenue to its owners. It is in use occasionally whenever a strolling company on a voyage between Australia and America happens along and gives a few performances. Honolulu is hardly able to support a theatre through the entire year, as the portion of the population able and willing to patronize it is very small.

WOMEN ON HORSE-BACK, HONOLULU.

Frank and Fred were amused at the equestrian performances of the natives, and particularly at the dash and energy with which the laughing girls pushed their horses at full speed. They rode "man-fashion," bestriding the horse instead of sitting on a side-saddle, and few of them seemed contented with any but the most rapid pace. The horses of the Hawaiian Islands are small but strong, and capable of great endurance; in fact, if they were otherwise it is evident they would not live long, when the habits of the natives are remembered. In travelling in the Hawaiian Islands it is necessary to carry your saddle, as carriage-roads are not numerous, and a good many places that one wishes to visit cannot be reached by wheeled vehicles. Of course it is possible to hire saddles when hiring horses, but this is by no means universally the case.

The afternoon drive was extended to the Pali, a mountain-pass six miles out of the town, and one of the chief attractions to visitors who can only make a brief stay at Honolulu. Outside of the business portion of the place our friends entered upon a straight and very dusty road, which for the first two miles and more led among the villas belonging to the merchants and other well-to-do people who make Honolulu their home. Each villa stands in a garden by itself, and the houses are often rendered invisible by the masses of foliage that surround them, and the creeping and climbing plants that rise to their very tops. The road steadily rises, and consequently the occupants of the houses have fine views of the bay and town; while the mountains rise behind them to form a background. Fred was so charmed with the beauty of the scene that he wished to sketch some of the villas, but the recollection of their limited time prevented his carrying the desire into execution.

Beyond this region of villas the carriage entered the foot-hills, where the road wound with a steep grade among taro-fields, in which men were at work up to their knees in water tending the plants which yield to the Hawaiian the staff of life. The water which irrigates the taro-fields is brought by innumerable streams from the sides of the mountains, to which it is supplied by the clouds borne by the trade-winds. Honolulu receives its water from the mountains, and there is certainly an abundance of it.

A MOUNTAIN VALLEY.

Beyond the taro-fields there is good grazing for cattle and sheep, of which there are numerous herds and flocks. Frank called attention to a water-fall some distance away, which made a pretty contrast with the dark sides of the mountain, and was evidently nearly, if not quite, two hundred feet in height. At one of the turns of the road the carriage came in contact with a cart which was descending the slope too swiftly for safety; the damage was trifling, but for a few moments things wore a serious aspect, as there was a good chance of being tossed over the side of the almost precipitous slope.

There were not many travellers along the road, the most picturesque being groups of girls on horseback and the herders who were driving cattle to market or for a change of pasture. The girls were generally in bright-colored robes, which were gathered in at the waist with brighter sashes that streamed behind them as they dashed along the road. Most of them wore straw hats on their heads, and generally the hats were adorned with flowers in wreaths and festoons, which were most liberally bestowed. Now and then Frank's attention was drawn to a pretty face which surmounted a neck adorned with a string of blossoms of gaudy colors; the necklace formed an admirable setting for the complexion, but sometimes the blossoms were not chosen with due regard to the contrast of colors.

HAWAIIAN TEMPLE.
(From a Russian Engraving about 1790.)

The Hawaiian cow-boys, or cattle-drivers, were not unlike their American prototypes, as they wore broad-brimmed hats and bright-colored scarfs; they were mounted on tough little horses, and sat in saddles of the American cow-boy pattern, the pommel rising high, and the stirrups made of wood. Then there were strings of pack-mules and horses coming down from the points in the mountains inaccessible to wheeled vehicles, and now and then our friends met a Chinese gardener taking the produce of his little patch to market on the back of a pack animal, and in some instances on a wheelbarrow. A few groups of men and women on foot were encountered, but the number was so small that Frank and Fred concluded that the Hawaiians were a home-loving people, and did not wander about much.

Near the Pali the road passed through thickets of how-trees, which resembled the growths of manzanita on the slopes of the California foot-hills. These thickets are so dense that it is impossible for man or horse to pass through them; in fact they are impenetrable to any but the smallest animals. Frank thought he would like to cut a cane as a souvenir, but refrained from doing so when reminded by Fred that he could probably buy all the canes he wanted in Honolulu.

MOUNTAIN SCENE IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Suddenly from the other side of the narrow pass a wonderful panorama was presented. Around on each side were the rugged cliffs of the mountain range, while in front they looked from a height of eight or nine hundred feet above the sea-level upon a picture which included every variety of scenery. In the distance was the blue Pacific washing the sandy shores and curving reefs of coral, and between the ocean and the point where our friends were standing were grassed and wooded foot-hills, and long stretches of lowlands dotted with coffee and sugar plantations, taro-fields, and other evidences of careful cultivation, together with villages and clusters of huts that marked the dwelling-places of the men engaged in this tropical agriculture.

"We could almost say that we had the colors of the rainbow in this bit of landscape," said Fred, afterwards, while describing the scene. "The blue sky and sea were tinged with purple, the distant mountains varied in shades of blue and gray, the foot-hills and plains gave us every verdant tinge that you can name, from the bright green of the mountain grass to the dark foliage of the vegetation that surrounded the villages; and as for yellow, you had it in every variety, from the reddish tint of the sinuous roads to the bright and almost white belt of sand that separated land from sea. We recalled several similar views in different parts of the world, but could give none of them preference over this. It was the view from the Baidar Gate in the Crimea, combined with Wockwalla near Point de Galle, and a bit of the scene from the Righi Culm in Switzerland."

Whoever goes to the Hawaiian Islands will consider his visit incomplete unless he includes the island of Hawaii and the great volcano of Kilauea in his tour. Doctor Bronson desired that the party should proceed thither at the earliest moment, and found on inquiry that a steamer was to leave for Hilo on the second morning after their arrival at Honolulu.

"Prepare for wet weather," said his informant, "as it rains all the time at Hilo. They say they have seventeen feet of rain there annually, and sometimes there are days and days together when it rains without letting up a minute. Gum-coats and water-proofs are in order, and the more you have of them the better."

Continuing, the narrator said that a Hilo man once made an experiment by knocking out the heads of an oil-cask, and it rained in at the bung-hole faster than the water could run out at the ends! Frank asked for the documents in the case—the affidavits before the justice of the peace, and the certificate of the resident clergyman—but they were not forthcoming. Another story was that the fishes frequently swam up into the air a distance of three or four hundred yards before discovering they were not in the bay, the showers being so dense that it was impossible for them to distinguish the one from the other. Fred declared himself skeptical on this subject, as the showers consisted of fresh water, while the bay was salt, and a salt-water fish does not usually show a willingness to swim up a fresh water stream except in the spawning season.

HILO.

The run to Hilo was made in about forty hours, the steamer making several stops on the way. It rained "cats and dogs" when the party landed, but as all the baggage had been wrapped in water-proof coverings, nothing was damaged. Arrangements were speedily made for departure on the following morning without regard to the weather: horses and guides were engaged, the best animals being selected for the saddles and others for packing purposes, and a substantial lunch was made ready for the mid-day meal. Doctor Bronson insisted that the horses should all be freshly shod before starting, and an extra supply of shoes and nails carried along. The road goes over the lava-beds for nearly the whole distance, and if a horse loses a shoe he will go lame in a very few minutes, so rough and cutting is the lava.

SURF-BATHING AT HILO.

Fortunately the morning was fine, and the bay of Hilo presented a pretty appearance. Groves of palm and other tropical trees lined the shore, the surf broke in regular pulsations upon the curving stretch of beach, and was made animate by dozens of men and boys at play in the waves. For the first time our friends saw some of the sport in the water for which the islanders are famous, though less so at present than in the days that are gone. Fred thus described it:

"Each man had a surf-board, which was a thick plank twelve or fifteen feet long and perhaps thirty inches wide, and said to be made from the trunk of a bread-fruit tree. There were five or six of the natives to whom we had promised half a dollar each for the performance. They pushed out with their planks to the first line of breakers and managed to dip under it and swim along by the help of the under-tow. They passed the second line in the same way, and finally got beyond the entire stretch of surf into comparatively smooth water.

"Then they tossed up and down for a while, waiting for their chance. What they wanted was an unusually high swell, and they tried to find a place in front of it so that it would sweep them towards the shore just where it broke into a comber. They tried several times but failed, and we began to get out of patience.

"At last they got what they had waited for, while some were kneeling on their planks and others lying extended with their faces downward, and just ahead of the great comber they swept on at a speed of little, if any, less than forty miles an hour. There they were just ahead of the breaker, and apparently sliding downhill; one of them was swamped by it, but he dived and came up behind the wave and made ready for the next. The others kept on, and were flung high and dry by the surf, and as soon as they could rise from their planks they ran towards us to receive their pay. One of the fellows stood erect on his plank while in the surf, just as the Nubians at the first cataract of the Nile stand up while descending through the foaming water."

THE VOLCANO HOUSE.

Meanwhile the guides were busy getting the cavalcade in readiness, and a little before eight o'clock the party was under way for the great volcano. From Hilo to the Volcano House is a distance of thirty miles. The horses go for the most of the time at a walk, and though the ride has been accomplished in six hours, it is better to allow not less than ten for it, and "take things easily." This will give time for a rest of an hour for lunch at the Half-way House—the lunch being the one which we have already prepared.

Frank wanted to try the effect of a gallop, but to guard against accidents Doctor Bronson suggested that gallops would be out of order for the day. The path over the lava is full of holes, and very rough and broken in many places. The natives trot and gallop along the road, but the novice should refrain from so doing. At a walking pace there is little discomfort and practically no danger, and parties of ladies and children can make the journey without excessive fatigue. "Chi va piano va sano," as the Italians say.

The youths found the ride from Hilo to the volcano full of interest. They amused themselves by comparing the lava-fields with those of the volcanoes they had visited in other parts of the world, and they studied the ferns, of which there were many varieties, the largest of them having stalks three or four feet in diameter and a height of fifteen or twenty feet. Other ferns were very small, and between the small and large there were all shades of colors and all possible sizes. One of the guides showed that the ferns were not altogether ornamental plants, as he plucked from one of them a woolly substance he called pulu, and said it was used for stuffing beds and pillows. Many tons of pulu are exported every year to America and other countries.

At the Half-way House everybody was hungry, and the lunch was speedily disposed of. A little after six o'clock in the evening the Volcano House was reached, and here the party spent the night. A good supper was prepared and eaten, and the incidents of the day and plans of the morrow were discussed; then the youths joined Doctor Bronson, at the suggestion of the latter, in a sulphur vapor-bath of Nature's own preparation, and after it all retired to sleep. The accommodations were limited, but everybody was weary enough to be willing to put up with the most primitive style of lodging, provided nothing better could be obtained.

Here is what Frank wrote concerning the visit of our friends to the crater of the volcano:

"We took a hearty breakfast and left the house about half-past eight o'clock in the morning, to make acquaintance with the crater. We put on our strongest shoes but did not encumber ourselves with heavy clothing, as the guide said we should not need it. The house is quite near the crater, almost on its edge, and so we didn't have far to go to begin sight-seeing; in fact, we had begun it on the previous evening, and all through the night, as the light of the volcano was almost constantly in our eyes. Two or three times during the night we saw the lava spurting up like a fountain above the edge of one of the small craters, and altogether the scene was an exciting one.

"It is fully three miles from one side of the crater of Kilauea to the other; but you do not walk in a straight course across it, for the simple reason that you can't. The crater is a great pit varying from eight hundred to fifteen hundred feet in depth; its floor consists of lava, ashes, and broken rocks, the lava predominating. It is rough and uneven, and in several places there are small craters sending up jets of flame, smoke, and steam, and there are numerous cracks from which smoke and steam issue constantly. In many places the lava lies in great rolls and ridges that are not easy to walk over, and some of them are quite impassable. Consequently the path winds about a good deal, and you may be said to walk two miles to get ahead one.

"The floor of the crater is hardly the same from week to week, and if I should make a map of it, and describe the place very carefully, you might not know it if you come here a year from now. In many places it is so hot that you cannot walk on it. Lava cools very slowly, and the thicker the bed of it the longer the time it requires for cooling.

"The Hawaiians say that the volcano is under the control of the Goddess Pele; she is a capricious deity, and you never know for any great length of time beforehand what she will do. Whenever the mood strikes her she orders an eruption, and straightway the fires are lighted, the mountain trembles, and the earth all around is violently shaken. Flames burst forth from the crater and shoot high in air, and sometimes the floor of the whole area is lifted and tossed like the waves of the sea. Kilauea may be said to be constantly active, as the fires never cease; but there are periods of great activity followed by seasons of comparative quiet.

VIEW OF ONE OF THE BURNING LAKES.

"Over the floor of the great crater we picked our way for nearly three miles to the Burning Lakes; and what do you suppose these lakes are?

"Their name describes them, as they are literally burning lakes—lakes of fire so hot that if you should be foolish enough to try to bathe in them, or so unfortunate as to fall into their waves, you would be burned up in less than a minute. We had to climb up a steep bank of lava to get in sight of them, and then what a spectacle was presented!

"There were two little lakes or ponds, five or six hundred feet in diameter, and separated by a narrow embankment which the guide said was occasionally overflowed, and either covered entirely or broken down for a while. These lakes are on the top of a hill formed by the cooling of the lava, and at the time we saw them their surface was perhaps one hundred feet below the point where we stood on the outer edge or rim. The wind blew from us over the lakes, and carried away the greater part of the smoke and the fumes of sulphur; but in spite of the favoring breeze we were almost choked by the noxious gases that rose from the burning lava, and the numerous crevices in the solid banks where we stood.

"I said the bank was formed by the cooling of the lava; I should rather say by its hardening, as it was far from cool. It was so hot that it burned our feet through the soles of our thick shoes, and we stood first on one foot and then on the other, as turkeys are said to stand on a hot plate. Fred sat down to rest, but he stood up again in less than half a minute, as it was like sitting on a hot stove. We had brought a canteen of water which the guide placed on the ground near us; when I went to pick it up for a drink, the air and exertion having made me very thirsty, it was so hot that I burned my fingers in trying to hold it. The water in the canteen was like a cup of tea as good housewives like to pour it steaming from the kettle.

"Our faces were blistering with the heat that rose from the surface of the lakes, and then we scorched our hands in trying to protect our faces. We were blinded and suffocated; we coughed and spluttered, and found it difficult to speak, and in a little while concluded we had had quite enough of the lakes. We used our eyes rapidly, as there was a great deal to look at, and the whole scene was such as does not often come into one's opportunities.

"The molten lava seethed, bubbled, boiled, and rolled below us, its surface covered with a grayish and thin crust, out of which rose irregular circles and patches of fire that seemed to sweep and follow one another from the circumference to the centre of the lake. Every minute or so the lava in the centre of the lake bulged up and broke into an enormous bubble or wave which sometimes rose twenty or thirty feet into the air, and then broke and scattered just as you see a bubble breaking in a kettle of boiling paste or oatmeal porridge. I know the comparison is a homely one, but I can't think of anything that will better describe what we saw.

"The bank of the lake down near where the lava came against it was red hot, and so you may imagine if you can a mass of liquid fire rolling and surging against a solid one. One of the lakes was much more agitated than the other, and the liquid lava seemed to break upon its sides very much like a sea upon a rocky shore. Owing to the half-plastic condition of the lava, it could not break into surf and spray like the waves of the ocean, but it made a dull roar, something like that of the Pacific on the beach near San Francisco just after the subsidence of a storm.

VIEW ON A LAVA FIELD.

"The surface of the lava changes its height from time to time. The guide said it occasionally rose until it overflowed the sides of the basin enclosing the lakes, and formed streams that spread out over the level area of the great crater. Sometimes it sank so that it was fully four hundred feet from the edge of the rim down to the lava; but whether it was high or low, there was never a time when it was wholly inactive.

"The guide called our attention to cones which had formed on the rim of the lake; they were caused by the cooling of the lava around vent-holes, and as successive jets of lava were thrown up and cooled they had formed cones fifteen or twenty feet high, and some of them as much as thirty feet. When the height became so great that the lava sought an outlet elsewhere, it generally left a hole in the top of the cone. We looked down some of these holes and saw the seething mass of lava threatening each moment to rise and destroy the very frail foundation where we were standing. The guide said there was little real danger, as the lava had receded since the cones were formed. I observed that the crust where we stood was not more than a foot or so in thickness; and as the lava is very brittle, the spot was certainly not a safe one. Besides, the fumes that rose from the vent-holes were absolutely stifling; and though the sight was a fascinating one, it was impossible to remain there long, owing to the difficulty of breathing.

HAWAIIAN WARRIORS OF A CENTURY AGO.

"We have visited volcanoes in other parts of the world, but none that equalled this, and never have we seen anything to compare with the Burning Lakes of Kilauea. What a magnificent sight it must be to see an eruption of Kilauea or Mauna Loa—especially the latter, as it is much the larger of the two. Just now it is quiet, but when it does break out it is, I believe, the greatest volcano in the world. Let me give you a few figures:

"Mauna Loa has had eight great eruptions in forty years, an average of one eruption every five years. It is 13,700 feet high, and in several of its eruptions it has sent streams of lava fifty miles in length to the sea. The flow of these streams is slow, usually requiring eight or ten days, and sometimes longer, to cover the distance from the mountain to the sea. In one eruption it was estimated that 38,000,000,000 cubic feet of lava were poured out, and in another 17,000,000,000. Kilauea is properly a spur of Mauna Loa, and less than 4000 feet high, but nevertheless it is the largest constantly active volcano in the world.

CHAIN OF EXTINCT VOLCANOES, ISLAND OF KAUAI.

"When the lava from Mauna Loa reaches the sea there is an immense cloud of steam rising from the point where the molten mass enters the water; the ocean is heated for miles around, and fishes by millions perish from the heat. The ground all over the island is devastated, earthquakes are frequent, and altogether Hawaii must be an unpleasant place of residence at that time.

"We got back to the hotel about five o'clock in the afternoon, thoroughly tired out with the day's excursion, which had given us so many curious and terrible sights. It has been an experience which we shall long remember."

Our friends wanted to visit the great crater of Haleakala, on the island of Maui, in order to be able to compare an extinct volcano with a live one, but time did not permit. They talked with a gentleman who had been there, and that, said Fred, was the next best thing to seeing with their own eyes. Here is the substance of what they learned concerning Haleakala:

"You have a ride of about twelve miles to reach the summit, and you ought to go up so as to sleep at the top and get the view at sunrise. There is no house there, but of this there is no need, as there are several caves in the lava—they are really broken lava-bubbles, which are each large enough to shelter half a dozen persons comfortably. Of course you must have a guide and must carry plenty of blankets, or you will suffer from the cold. Water and wood can be found near the top of the mountain.

"The crater of Haleakala is thirty miles in circumference, or ten miles across, and it is two thousand feet from the edge of the rim that surrounds it to the floor of the crater; over this floor are spread ten or twelve smaller craters and cones, some of them large enough to be good-sized mountains by themselves, as they are nearly, if not quite, a thousand feet high.

"You can descend into the great crater if you wish, and there is a path by which you can traverse it; but it is very necessary that you should not turn from the path, as the lava is so sharp that it would endanger your horse's feet to go even a few yards over it. Stick to the route, and implicitly obey your guide."

Fred obtained a map of Haleakala, which we give on the following page. It shows the shape of the crater and the openings at either end, where the lava is supposed to have made an outlet for itself; these openings are called Koolau Gap and Kaupo Gap, the former being something more than two miles across, and the latter a trifle less.

Before leaving Hilo, Doctor Bronson arranged for a schooner to meet the party at a point on the Puna coast, which was easily reached in a day's ride from the crater of Kilauea. Before sunset they had paid the guide for the hire of the horses and his own wages, and the evening saw them dashing through the waters on the way to Honolulu. The trade-wind bore them swiftly along; Hawaii is to windward of Oahu, and while it takes a schooner or other sailing-vessel four or five days to beat from Honolulu to Hilo, the return journey can be made in from twenty-four to thirty hours. The second morning from Puna saw the schooner anchored in the harbor of the capital, and our friends had the satisfaction of breakfasting at the spacious and comfortable Hawaiian hotel.

MAP OF THE HALEAKALA CRATER.

Through the courtesy of a gentleman engaged in the sugar culture, our friends made a visit to a sugar plantation, the culture of the saccharine product being the principal industry of the Hawaiian Islands. We have not space for an account of all they saw and heard, but will give a summary from Fred's note-book.

"Sugar is grown on all the four large islands of the group, but the principal seat of the industry is on Maui, which seems peculiarly favorable to it. We were told that the yield was sometimes between five and six tons to the acre, four tons was not an unusual amount, and it would be considered a poor plantation that did not give two or two and a half tons. The volcanic soil seems to be just what the sugar-cane loves; the seasons are such that planting can be done in many places at any time of the year, and there is not the least danger of frost, as in the sugar area of the United States.

"The common custom is to raise two crops, and then let the ground lie idle for two seasons; so that taking a series of years together, allowance must be made for the idle time in estimating the yield of sugar. In some localities, especially those where the ground is artificially irrigated, this plan is not always followed, as it does not appear to be necessary. To show the growth of the industry, let me say that the export of sugar in 1860 was 1,414,271 pounds, while in 1871, eleven years later, it was 21,760,773 pounds. Last year it was in the neighborhood of fifty million pounds.

KAMEHAMEHA I., FIRST KING OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

"In the early years of the sugar culture the work was performed by the natives, but in course of time it grew to such an extent that the local supply of labor was not sufficient. A great number of Chinese and Portuguese were introduced, and laborers have been brought from other islands of the Pacific Ocean, so that the population of the country is now a mixed one. By the census of 1878 the population was 57,986; 44,088 of these were natives, 5916 Chinese, 4561 whites, and 3420 half-castes. In 1882 the population was estimated at 66,895, including 12,804 Chinese. In the two years ending March 31, 1884, there was an immigration of 6166 Portuguese from the Azores Islands. Among the whites the Americans are most numerous, but the Germans are steadily increasing in numbers, a large part of the sugar interest and the commerce dependent upon it being in their hands. The commercial king of the islands is Claus Spreckels, who is of German origin, and practically controls the sugar culture. He owns a steamship line between Honolulu and San Francisco, and the local steamers plying to the various islands are mostly in his hands.

"Rice and coffee are also products of the islands, but they occupy a low position when compared to that of sugar. Hides, tallow, wool, and salt are also exported, but the quantity is not great. The value of the exports of the islands is from eight to ten million dollars annually, and the imports amount to about two millions less than the exports. The principal imports are textile fabrics, clothing, implements, machinery, and provisions."

So much for the commercial condition of the kingdom of Hawaii. Let us now turn to other matters.

WATER-FALL ON ISLAND OF KAUAI.

Our friends took a day, or rather two nights and a day, for a visit to the famous Leper Hospital on Molokai Island. Leaving Honolulu late one evening, they were landed the next morning on Molokai for their strange excursion. We will let Frank tell the story of the visit.

"The leper settlement is on a plain, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on the fourth. The mountains are so rugged as to be impassable except at a few points, which are always carefully guarded. The sea-front is also watched, so that escape from the settlement is practically impossible.

IMPLEMENTS OF DOMESTIC LIFE.
a, Calabash for poi.—b, Calabash for fish.—c, Water-bottle.—d, d, Poi mallets.—e, Poi trough.—f, Native bracelet—g, Fiddle.—h, Flute.—i, i, Drums.

"Any person in the Hawaiian kingdom suspected of leprosy is arrested by the authorities, and if a medical examination shows that he is afflicted with the disease he is sent to Molokai. The sentence is perpetual, leprosy being considered incurable except in its earliest stages. A man sent to Molokai is considered dead. His wife may obtain a decree of divorce and marry again if she likes, and his estate is handed over to the courts and administered upon as though he had ceased to exist. Great care is exercised to prevent the banishment of any one about whose case there is any doubt. There is a hospital near Honolulu where all doubtful cases are sent, and the physician in charge keeps them there until the certainty of the presence or absence of the disease is settled beyond question.

HAWAIIAN PIPE.

"The doctor who accompanied us through the settlement assured us that leprosy is neither epidemic nor contagious in the ordinary sense of the latter word. It can only be communicated by an abraded surface coming in contact with a leprous sore; and he said that the practice among the natives of many persons smoking the same pipe had done much to spread the disease. He shook hands freely with the victims of leprosy during our visit, and did not take the trouble to wear gloves, even when the hands of the others were covered with sores.

"He told us that the disease first showed itself by a slight swelling under the eyes and in the lobes of the ears; then the fingers contracted like birds' claws, the face swelled into ridges that were smooth and shiny, and later these ridges broke into festering sores. Sometimes these symptoms on the face do not appear, the attacks being principally on the hands and feet. The fingers and toes wither and decay; they seem to dry up and shrink, as we saw several persons whose finger-nails were on their knuckles, the fingers having shrunk away and disappeared.

"It is a curious circumstance that the victims of leprosy rarely suffer pain. The decay of the extremities is gradual, and the shiny ridges on the face may be pinched with the fingers or punctured with a pin without giving any sensation. Among the nine hundred and odd persons in the leper settlement we saw very few sad faces. The people were enjoying themselves very much as they would in Honolulu—talking and laughing, walking or lounging about, or riding horses, and in one place they were playing a game that evoked a good deal of shouting and hilarity. Many were at work in the fields and gardens, or making salt along the shore. There is a leper governor for the settlement, and the usual number of subordinates that such a place requires. There is a store where goods are sold at cost, and many of the lepers receive money from their friends and spend it at the store. The Government provides the lepers with clothes and lodging, and gives them sufficient food for their subsistence. Those who can work are encouraged to do so, and all that they produce is bought by the Board of Health and paid for out of the store.

"Then they have two churches—one Catholic and the other Protestant. The latter has a native pastor, and the former a white priest, who has volunteered to seclude himself among these unfortunate people for their religious good. There are three white men and eight Chinese who have been sent here as lepers. It has been charged that the Chinese brought leprosy to the islands, but the doctor says this is not so, the disease having existed here before the Chinese came; and besides, it is quite unlike the malady of that name in China. There it principally attacks the skin, while the Hawaiian form belongs to the blood.

"The location of the settlement is an excellent one, as it is on the windward side of the island, and constantly swept by the pure breezes from the ocean. For those who are unable to move about there are large and well-kept hospitals, where the patients are waited upon by other lepers that have not reached the disabled stage. Access and escape are alike difficult, and everything seems to have been done to make life as comfortable as possible to the unfortunate victims who are sent here."

[CHAPTER III.]

SUDDEN CHANGE OF PLANS.—THE YACHT PERA.—DEPARTURE FROM HONOLULU.—VOYAGE TO THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS.—NOOKAHEEVA BAY.—HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE MARQUESAS.—WHAT OUR FRIENDS SAW THERE.—TATTOOING AND HOW IT IS PERFORMED.—THE DAUGHTER OF A CHIEF.—NATIVES AND THEIR PECULIARITIES.—COTTON AND OTHER PLANTATIONS.—PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE ISLANDS.—VISITING A PLANTATION AND A NATIVE VILLAGE.—MISSIONARIES AND THEIR WORK.—THE TABU.—CURIOUS CUSTOMS.—PITCAIRN ISLAND AND THE MUTINEERS OF THE BOUNTY.—WONDERS OF EASTER ISLAND.—GIGANTIC MONUMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN RACE.

Those who have followed the Boy Travellers in their journeys in other parts of the world will remember that their plans were often changed by circumstances which could not be foreseen. At Honolulu one of these change took place, and this is how it happened:

When the Alameda entered the harbor on her arrival from San Francisco our friends observed at anchor a trim-looking yacht displaying the English flag. They were too busy with the novelties of the place to give her any attention, and her presence was soon forgotten.

On the morning of their return from Molokai Doctor Bronson encountered in the breakfast-room of the hotel an old friend, Doctor Macalister, of Cambridge, England. Their greetings were cordial, and all the more so as neither had the least idea that the other was in the Hawaiian Islands or anywhere else in the Pacific Ocean. In almost the same breath each exclaimed,

"What are you doing here?"

Doctor Bronson explained briefly how he came to Honolulu, and where he was going, to which Doctor Macalister responded,

"I came here on the yacht Pera; she belongs to Colonel Bush, formerly of her Britannic Majesty's army, but for several years in the service of the Turkish Government. I am the colonel's guest, and we came here by way of India, China, and Japan. We leave to-morrow for the South Pacific, where we are to cruise about for several months, visiting the most interesting of the island groups. We go first to the Marquesas Islands, and then—"

LOOKING SEAWARD.

Just at this moment Colonel Bush entered the breakfast-room, and was introduced to Doctor Bronson. A moment later Frank and Fred arrived, presentations followed, and before the morning meal was over the American contingent was fairly well acquainted with the English one.

Conversation developed the fact that two gentlemen who had arrived on the Pera had left by the mail-steamer for San Francisco, having received letters at Honolulu which compelled their immediate return to England. Consequently the Pera's party was reduced to Colonel Bush and Doctor Macalister.

THE OWNER OF THE YACHT.

The party arranged to meet at dinner. Colonel Bush and Doctor Macalister went to the Pera, while Doctor Bronson and the youths proceeded to make farewell calls, as the steamer on which they were to continue their journey was due on the morrow, and they wished to be ready for her.

Exactly how it came about we are unable to say, but it is evident that Colonel Bush desired further acquaintance with Doctor Bronson and his nephews, and that Doctor Macalister had heartily approved the colonel's desire. At all events, when the three gentlemen were together after dinner, Frank and Fred having left the table, the colonel invited Doctor Bronson, with his nephews, to accompany him in his voyage to the South Seas.

"There is plenty of room on the yacht," said he, "and provisions are abundant. The Pera is almost identical with the Sunbeam, the famous yacht of Sir Thomas Brassey, of which you have read. She relies upon her sails when there is any wind, and has auxiliary steam-power to propel her when needed. The north-east trade-winds will carry us down to the equatorial belt of calms, and then we'll steam through it to the south-east trades, which will carry us straight to the Marquesas. From the Marquesas we'll go to the Society Islands, then to Samoa, and then to Feejee. There you can if you like take the mail-steamer to New Zealand and Australia, or continue with the Pera wherever she goes. Beyond Feejee I have not formed my plans very definitely, as they will depend somewhat upon the letters I receive there, and upon the state of things in the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and other of the groups to the west of Feejee."

The heartiness of the invitation, the opportunity the voyage would give for seeing groups of islands not on the regular track of travel, and the fact that he was not pressed for time, settled the question with Doctor Bronson, and he accepted at once. He excused himself shortly afterwards to inform the youths of the change in their plans.

Of course they were delighted at the opportunity of making an acquaintance with the islands that were included in the Pera's proposed voyage, and earnestly congratulated themselves on their good-fortune.

"GOOD-BY!"

The baggage of the party was sent on board in the forenoon of the next day; the travellers followed it, and a little before two o'clock in the afternoon the Pera steamed out of Honolulu and headed southward. When she had made a good offing her engines were stopped, the fires were put out, and the yacht proceeded at a splendid pace with the strong trade-wind on her port beam. Her course was directed to the south-east, so as to enable her to cross the equator about longitude 140° west, and take advantage of the south-east trades in making the Marquesas.

AT HOME ON THE "PERA."

Frank undertook a journal of the voyage; but like most works of the kind, it abounded in repetitions, and our space will not permit extensive quotations. One day was so much like another that the young gentleman admitted that his narrative would make very tiresome reading, and he doubted if any one would care to peruse it. Suffice it to say the time passed agreeably, as there was a good library on board, and each member of the party tried to do his share towards entertaining the rest. Stories of sea and land, "of moving accidents by flood and field," and discussions upon scientific, social, and all other imaginable topics, served to beguile the hours and shorten the distance between the Hawaiian and the Marquesas groups.

BELOW DECK IN THE TROPICS.

The north-east trades carried the Pera almost to the equator, then came a period of calm in a torrid temperature that drove everybody to the shelter of the double awning over the deck, and made them sigh for cooler latitudes. Heavy clothing was at a discount, and the lightest garments were found more than sufficient. Social rules were suspended, and pajamas were worn altogether, except at dinner-time, when light suits of linen took their place. Dinner was served on deck beneath the awning, and the ice-machine was kept in constant action to supply ice for the use of the sweltering travellers. Happily this state of affairs did not last long; as soon as the Pera entered the calm belt the funnel was hoisted, fires were started, the equator was crossed triumphantly, and the yacht in due time caught the south-east trades, and was once more turned into a sailing-craft.

As they left the equator behind them the north star disappeared below the horizon, and the Southern Cross, that magnificent constellation of the antarctic heavens, came into view. Frank regretted that they could not look at it with a powerful telescope, when he learned from the captain of the Pera that there is a brilliant cluster of stars in the centre of the Cross, invisible to the unassisted eye, and only revealed by a strong glass. Farther south their attention was absorbed by the Magellan clouds, two nebulæ of stars so densely packed together and so far away that they resemble light fleecy clouds more than anything else.

ON THE COAST OF THE MARQUESAS.

In a direct line it is about two thousand miles from Honolulu to the outermost of the Marquesas group. The log of the Pera showed a run of 2180 miles, and on the morning of the sixteenth day of the voyage the lookout gave the welcome announcement that land was in sight. Colonel Bush had given directions for the yacht to proceed direct to Nookaheeva Bay, the best harbor in the Marquesas group, and consequently the travellers contented themselves with distant views of the outer islands that lay in their course. The islands are evidently of volcanic origin, as they present high peaks rising two or three thousand feet, and in some places their sides are almost precipitous. With a glass, or even with the unaided eye, it was easy to perceive that the sides of the mountains and the valleys enclosed between them were thickly clothed with tropical trees and undergrowth, that extended down close to the water's edge.

Frank made the following historical note concerning the islands:

"They were discovered in 1595 by a Spanish navigator, Mendaña de Neyra, who named them Las Marquesas de Mendoza, in honor of the Marquis de Mendoza, Viceroy of Peru. They are sometimes known as the Mendaña Archipelago, in honor of their discoverer; and they are also called the Washington Islands, having been so named by Captain Ingraham of the American ship Hope, who visited them in 1791. They are generally divided into two groups, the Northern and Southern, and the Island of Nookaheeva, where we are going, is in the Northern group. Altogether there are thirteen of the islands, with an area of less than five hundred square miles and a population of about ten thousand.

"Properly the name Marquesas belongs to the Southern group only, as they alone were visited by Mendaña; the Northern group was not known until the American captain discovered it, and therefore we shall insist that they are the Washington Islands."

For the description of what they saw at Nookaheeva we will rely upon Fred's account.

A VIEW IN NOOKAHEEVA.

"As we neared the island," said the youth in his journal, "we got up steam and went proudly into the harbor, which has a very good anchorage. The French flag was flying from a tall staff at the end of the bay, and you must know that the islands are under a French protectorate, and have been so since 1841. Hardly was our anchor down before the yacht was surrounded by a dozen boats, or canoes; one of them contained a Frenchman in a greatly faded uniform, who said he was the captain of the port. I very much doubt if he ever held the rank of captain anywhere else.

"However, he represented the authority of the French Government and treated us politely. Evidently the port was not often visited by pleasure craft like our own, as he seemed somewhat surprised when told that we had nothing to sell, and did not wish to buy anything except fresh provisions. We bought some yams, bread-fruit, bananas, and other fruits and vegetables, together with two or three pigs that the natives brought alongside in their boats. The captain of the port promised to send us a man who would supply us with fresh beef, and then went on shore, whither we followed as soon as we had lunched.

"Both in the boats and on the land we had a good opportunity to study the natives, who are said to be the finest type of Polynesians. They belong to the Malay race, and are distinguished for their graceful and symmetrical figures; the men are tall and well proportioned, with skins of a dark copper color, while the women are considerably lighter in complexion, partly in consequence of their being less exposed to the sun, and partly because of certain pigments which they apply to their faces and arms.

"Tattooing is in fashion here; it prevails among both sexes, though more among the men than the women. It takes a long time to perform it thoroughly. A resident Frenchman with whom we talked on the subject said that the operation began at the age of nineteen or twenty, and was rarely finished until the subject was approaching his fortieth year. It is performed with an instrument shaped like a comb, or rather like a small chisel with its end fashioned into teeth. The figure is drawn upon the skin, and then the artist dips the comb into an ink made of burnt cocoanut-shell and water, until the blunt ends of the teeth have taken up some of the coloring matter. Then the comb is placed on the proper spot, and with a mallet is driven through the skin, eliciting a howl from the subject, unless he is of stoical mood.

"Only a few square inches can be operated on at a time. The flesh swells and becomes very sore, and the performance cannot be repeated until the swelling subsides and the patient has gathered strength and recovered from the fever into which he is generally thrown. We are told that the custom is far less prevalent than when the islands were first discovered, and it will probably die out in another generation or two.

GATTANEWA'S PORTRAIT.

"The marks made by tattooing are permanent, and no application has ever been found that will remove them. We have seen several men whose entire bodies were tattooed, others whose arms and faces had alone been wrought upon, and others again who had kept their faces free from marks but had their bodies covered. One old fellow consented to stand for his photograph in consideration of being rewarded with a hatchet and some fish-hooks, which we willingly gave him. We added a pocket-knife, which he received with a grunt of satisfaction, but without deigning to say 'Thank you,' or anything like its equivalent. He said his name was Gattanewa, and that he was grandson of a former chief of that name.

"The faces of the women are not tattooed, except that now and then they have a black line on the upper lip, which is quite suggestive of a budding mustache. One pretty woman was pointed out to us who was said to be the daughter of a chief; her hands and arms were tattooed, the tattooing on the arms extending nearly to the elbow. At a little distance she seemed to have on a pair of embroidered gloves, and this fact suggested an idea. Why could not the ladies of civilized lands have their hands tattooed in imitation of gloves, and thus save themselves the trouble and expense of donning a new pair so often? An ingenious artist could do it nicely, and he might even tattoo the buttons in their places, so that the gloves could have no possible chance of slipping off or getting out of shape.

TATTOO MARKS ON A CHIEF OF THE MARQUESAS.

"There was a chief of one of the interior tribes who presented an excellent specimen of the work of the Polynesian artist on a living canvas. Circles, squares, and all sorts of curious figures had been delineated on his skin, and then punctured in with the tattoo instrument; and the artist certainly possessed a correct eye, as all the drawing was mathematically exact. The chief allowed Frank to make a sketch of him, as the photograph did not bring out all the lines with distinctness; of course he was rewarded for his condescension, and as he received twice as much as he had expected, we had any number of candidates offering themselves when it was known how liberally we paid for services.

"Doctor Bronson says the custom prevails in many of the islands of Polynesia, though not in all, but is fast dying out through the influence of Christianity and civilization. Tattooing has been practised in almost all parts of the world and in all ages. According to the Bible, it must have existed in the time of Moses, for we find it to be one of the practices prohibited to the Jews. Read what is said in Leviticus, xix. 28: 'Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.' It prevailed among the ancient Thracians, and the ancient Britons practised it. It still exists among sailors, and has probably descended through them from the time when it was common in Great Britain, though they may have adopted it from the barbarous countries to which their occupation carries them.

"Frank says these people are like a French salad, as they are dressed with oil; they use cocoanut-oil for polishing their skins and anointing their hair, and it is applied with great liberality. One of the presents we gave to the chief who stood for his picture was a flat bottle like a pocket-flask; he said through the interpreter that it was just the thing for carrying oil, and he will no doubt use it for that purpose until it goes the way of all bottles and is broken. The effect on the skin is less disagreeable than you might suppose, as it makes it shine like a piece of mahogany, and brings out the tattoo marks just as varnishing a picture brings out its strong points more clearly than before.

"Turmeric and other coloring substances are used with the oil. Turmeric gives a reddish tinge to the natural brown, and when it is applied to the skin of a pretty woman the effect is like that of the tint of an American belle who has spent a summer at the sea-side or on a yachting cruise, and has not been careful of her complexion. Here is a hint for the ladies who pretend to go to the sea-side or the mountains in summer, but are really obliged to remain at home: Make a cosmetic of cocoanut-butter and turmeric, and apply it in place of cold-cream night and morning. In this way you can get up a 'sea-side tan' at a trifling expense.

"Before civilization came here the natives wore very little clothing, and even at the present time they do not spend much money on their wardrobes. The native cloth, tappa, is made by pounding the inner bark of a species of mulberry-tree with a mallet after soaking it in water. Tappa enough for an entire dress can be made in a day, and when it is done it will last five or six weeks. For a head-dress it is made of a more open texture than for garments to cover the body. The women wrap three or four yards of it around the waist to form a skirt or petticoat, and then cover their shoulders with a mantle of the same material. European cotton goods have partially replaced tappa, and the old industry is dying out. It is a pity, too, as tappa is prettier than cotton cloth, and the natives look better in it than in more civilized material.

THE CHIEF'S DAUGHTER.

"In another way civilization has destroyed the picturesqueness of the Marquesas Islands. The natives formerly wore necklaces made of hogs' and whales' teeth, and the men bored their ears, in which they inserted ornaments of bone or teeth. These snow-white necklaces on the skins of the Marquesas women had a very pretty effect, much prettier than that of the cheap jewellery they wear nowadays, and which comes from French or English manufactories. The chief's daughter whom I mentioned had one of these necklaces, but she wore it more as the mark of her rank than because she admired it. Above the necklace she had a double string of common beads. She had a funny sort of ear-ornament that we tried in vain to buy, as it was one of the insignia to indicate her rank in life.

"When the French took possession of the islands they started to make an extensive colony. They sent a fleet of four ships of war with five hundred troops, and hoisted the French flag with a great deal of ceremony. Fortifications were built, and there were some conflicts with the natives; but of course the islanders, with their rude and primitive weapons, were speedily conquered. The French built docks and jetties in addition to their fortifications, but they have been of little practical use. We found that the most of the jetties had rotted away, and in place of the former garrison of five hundred men there are now about sixty soldiers and a few policemen.

"The Governor treated us very kindly, and at our first call upon him he invited us to dine with him, where we met his amiable wife and the officers of his staff. Colonel Bush invited them to dine on the yacht. As the cabin is limited, we had the Governor and his wife on one day and the officers on another, and I am sure they all enjoyed our visit. Strangers come here so rarely that our advent made an agreeable break in the monotony of their lives.

"There are some fifty foreigners living here, and they include several nationalities—English, American, Irish, Scotch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Peruvian. Some of them are engaged in business, but there is not a great deal of it, as the colony has not been successful. Cotton is the principal article of cultivation, and there is a small trade in beche-de-mer, the famous sea-cucumber of which the Chinese are fond. It brings a high price in the markets of Canton and Shanghai, sometimes selling as high as five hundred dollars a ton. One of the Englishmen, who has a store in the little settlement, said that several of the cotton plantations had been abandoned, owing to the difficulty of getting laborers for them. The natives are disinclined to work, and laborers from other islands cannot be had in sufficient numbers. Several hundred Chinese have been imported, and also some laborers from the Gilbert and Loyalty Islands. The Chinese make very good colonists, and many of them have plantations of their own, which they manage very successfully.

"The same gentleman showed us a fungus that comes from the valleys between the mountains; it looks very much like a scrap of dried leather, and would not be considered worth much to one who did not know about it. It brings a good price in China, where it is used for making soup. We tried some of it at dinner one day, and found it not at all disagreeable to the taste; in fact it was so good that our steward bought nearly a barrel of it for future use.

"There is a road around the head of the bay which was built by the French soon after their arrival, but has been neglected and is not in good repair. Our host took us on a ride along this road, from which the view is delightful. In front is the deep blue water of the bay, while behind us the mountains rose very precipitously, and seemed to shut us out altogether from the rest of the island. The bay is nearly in the shape of a horseshoe, ending in two high headlands, and to follow its shores requires a walk or ride of about nine miles. The entrance is less than half a mile wide, and is guarded by two small islands, each about five hundred feet high.

"Cowper says:

"'Mountains interpos'd
Make enemies of nations who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.'

"There is nowhere in the world a better illustration of the truth of this assertion than in the Marquesas. In each island the mountains rise in ridges like the sections of a starfish; some of these ridges are quite impassable, and all of them very difficult to traverse. The result has been that there was formerly very little intercourse between the tribes occupying the different valleys, and until the French came here there was hardly a time when two or more tribes were not at war. Even at present they are not entirely at peace, and though the most of them have abandoned cannibalism, it is occasionally practised.

"Our host told us that in many of the valleys there are old men who have never been outside the limits of the mountain walls that enclose their homes, and others whose journeys have been wholly confined to short excursions on the water a few miles from shore. The ordinary mode of communication is by water, and in many cases it is the only one possible.

A EUROPEAN'S RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS.

"The gentleman invited us to go to one of the valleys where he has a plantation; we made the excursion in a large sail-boat manned by six or eight natives, but built after an English model and commanded by an English sailor. Starting early one morning, we made the run in about four hours, spent an afternoon and night in the valley, and returned the next day. All these valleys in the Marquesas have a wealth of tropical trees and smaller plants which is not surpassed anywhere else in the world. The cocoa and several other varieties of the palm-tree abound here, and they have the bread-fruit, the banana and taro plants, the sugar-cane, and, as before mentioned, the cotton-plant.

A MARQUESAN VILLAGE.

"Close by the landing-place we came to a village of a dozen or twenty huts built of the yellow bamboo and thatched with palmetto-leaves, which the sun had bleached to a whiteness that reminded us of a newly shingled roof in temperate zones. Our guide called our attention to the platform of stones on which each house stood, and said it was a protection against dampness. The rain falls frequently and very heavily, and it is the abundant moisture that makes the vegetation so luxuriant. On the mountain ridges, in whatever direction you look, there are streams tumbling down, and the steep cliffs are whitened by numerous cascades. The moisture nourishes a great variety of creeping plants, and in many places they completely cover the precipitous cliffs and give them the appearance of green water-falls.

"The natives in one respect resemble the Irish peasantry, their chief wealth being in pigs. These animals were introduced by the Spaniards, who were for a long time venerated as gods in consequence of this inestimable gift to these simple-minded people. Before the visit of the Spaniards the islands had absolutely no four-footed animals; hence it is easy to see how Mendaña and his companions were regarded as more than human.

"Now they have some horses and horned cattle, but not many; they have dogs and cats, and unfortunately they have rats, which were brought here in foreign ships, and have multiplied so fast that they have become a great pest. There are only a few varieties of birds on the islands; most of them have beautiful plumage, but none can be properly called song-birds.

"Near the village is a well-built church of stone; it is in charge of a Catholic priest, and we were told that there is an average of one church to every two hundred inhabitants all over the islands. The first missionaries to the Marquesas came in the London Mission ship Duff near the end of the last century, but after a short residence they became disheartened and abandoned the effort to convert and civilize the people. Several attempts were made in the first quarter of the present century, but with a similar result. In 1833 some American missionaries tried the experiment, and in 1834 the London Mission Society sent a fresh party of missionaries, but all to little purpose.

CATHOLIC MISSIONARY.

"In 1853 an English missionary named Bicknell and four Hawaiian teachers, accompanied by their wives, went to the Marquesas at the request of a Marquesan chief, who had gone to the Sandwich Islands in a whale-ship to present the invitation. The French priests opposed the coming of these missionaries, but the chiefs refused to give them up, and so the teachers remained, but they made little progress in converting the natives to Christianity.

"The Catholic mission supports quite a number of priests and a bishop at the Marquesas. The mission has had very poor success in securing adherents to its faith, but it has done much good in the way of showing the natives the result of industry. Around each mission station there is a well-cultivated garden, and some of the finest cotton-fields on the islands may be found there. I have never seen anywhere a prettier cotton-field than at the mission we visited.

"There is a convent at Nookaheeva, where the French Sisters are educating about sixty Marquesan girls, whose ages vary from four to sixteen years. There is a similar school for boys, which is under the charge of the mission; and the bishop hopes that these boys and girls will be of service in educating and converting their people to the religion and civilization of the foreigner. But from all we can learn it will be a long time before his hopes are realized. The Queen is a devout Catholic, while the King is a nominal one, and each missionary has a small flock of followers; but the great majority are as much heathen as ever, and cling firmly to their old superstitions.

"One of the curious customs of the South Sea Islands is the tabu, and it prevails much more strongly at the Marquesas at the present time than anywhere else. The word is Polynesian, and singularly resembles in sound and meaning the to ebah of the ancient Hebrews. It has a good and a bad meaning, or rather it may apply to a sacred thing or to a wicked one. A cemetery, being consecrated ground, would be tabu, or sacred, and to fight there would be tabu, or wicked. Our English word 'tabooed' (forbidden) comes from the Polynesian one.

IN A GALE NEAR THE MARQUESAS.

"It would take too long to describe all the operations of tabu as it formerly prevailed through Polynesia and still exists in some of the islands, and especially in the Marquesas. There were two kinds of tabu, one of them permanent, the other temporary. The permanent tabu was a sort of traditional or social rule, and applied to everybody. All grounds and buildings dedicated to any idol or god were tabu, and therefore became places of refuge to men fleeing from an enemy, exactly like the Cities of Refuge mentioned in the Bible. It was tabu to touch the person of a chief or any article belonging to him, or eat anything he had touched. In the Tonga Islands it was tabu to speak the name of father or mother or of father-in-law or mother-in-law, to touch them, or to eat in their presence except with the back turned, when they were constructively supposed to be absent.

COMMODORE PORTER'S FLEET IN NOOKAHEEVA BAY.

"In the Feejee Islands it was tabu for brother and sister and first-cousins to speak together or eat from the same dish. Husband and wife could not eat from the same dish, and a father could not speak to his son if the latter was more than fifteen years old!

"The tabu was a very convenient police system, as any exposed property could be made safe by being tabooed. The chiefs and priests could tabu anything they chose; when a feast was about to come off the chief would previously tabu certain articles of food, and thus insure an abundance on the day of the festival. Violation of certain kinds of tabu was punished with death; other and smaller violations had various penalties affixed, and they generally included sacrifices or presents to the gods, or the payment of fines to the chiefs.

"Well, here in the Marquesas, among other prohibitions, it was tabu for a woman to enter a canoe or boat. Men had a monopoly of all paddling and sailing, and the only sea-voyage a woman could make was by swimming. I have read about women in the South Seas swimming out to ships anchored a long distance from shore, and never understood till now how it was. It is no wonder that sailors used to mistake these Marquesan nymphs for mermaids as they dashed through the waves with their long black hair trailing behind them in the water."

Fred's account of what they saw in the Marquesas pauses abruptly at this point. Perhaps he was interrupted by just such a scene as he describes in the last sentence, but he could hardly fall into the old error of the sailors. The women of the Marquesas are fine swimmers, but no better, perhaps, than those of the Feejee, Samoan, and other tropical or semi-tropical groups.

The Pera remained several days at the Marquesas, and then proceeded to Tahiti, in the Society group. Before they left Nookaheeva one of the officers of the Governor's staff pointed out the hill where Commodore Porter hoisted the American flag when he anchored with his prizes in the bay during the war of 1812. "That was a long time ago," said the officer; "but the incident is vividly preserved in the traditions of the people. And it was that incident that greatly aided the French in getting their foothold here."

"How was that?" Frank inquired.

"At the time of Commodore Porter's visit," replied the officer, "the Nookaheevans were at war with a neighboring tribe. The hostile tribe made an incursion one night and destroyed about two hundred bread-fruit trees close to Porter's camp; the next day they sent a messenger to tell him he was a coward, and they would come soon and attack his camp.

"Porter thereupon concluded to teach them a lesson, and so he sent a small detachment under Lieutenant Downs to aid the Nookaheevans to punish their enemies.

"This was accomplished, and the hostile tribe was completely subdued. As soon as he had completed the repairs to his ships Porter sailed away, but he was long revered in Nookaheeva. When the French came here, thirty years afterwards, the natives thought the performance of Porter would be repeated, and the Frenchmen would aid the Nookaheevans to defeat their enemies. They were received with open arms, and the natives were not undeceived until the French had completed their forts and were fully able to defend themselves."

Continuing his reference to the natives, Frank's informant said that great numbers of them were at one time kidnapped and carried away by labor-vessels, of which more will be said in a later chapter. In 1863 small-pox was introduced by foreign ships, and killed nearly one-half of the population. Altogether the people of the Marquesas have no special occasion to be grateful to the white man.

During the Pera's voyage to Tahiti our young friends devoted their time to a study of that part of the Pacific Ocean and the islands it contained. Fred called their attention to Pitcairn Island, which has been long famous as the home of the mutineers of the Bounty; both the youths regretted that they were not to pass in its vicinity, but consoled themselves by reading an account of a visit to it, and a description of the inhabitants.[2]

EASTER ISLAND HOUSE AND CHILDREN.

One day while they were busy with their studies of the Pacific, Doctor Bronson called their attention to Easter Island, which he pronounced one of the most remarkable islands in the great ocean.

Frank eagerly asked why it was so, and the Doctor kindly explained as follows:

LAVA ROCK IMAGE, EASTER ISLAND.

"It is remarkable," said he, "on account of the mysterious origin and history of its former inhabitants, and the sculptured rocks and stone images which they have left scattered in great numbers over the island. It has been known since 1722, when the navigator Roggewein discovered it on Easter Sunday of that year, and named it Easter Island in commemoration of the discovery. Some authorities say it was discovered in 1686 by Davis, an English buccaneer, and it was known as Davis Land until Roggewein's visit. Captain Cook visited it about 1772, and it is said he found twenty thousand inhabitants there. The island is about thirty miles in circumference, and is situated in latitude 27° 10' south, and 109° 26' west longitude. It has a remarkable isolation, being two thousand miles from the coast of Chili, and one thousand five hundred from any other inhabited island except Pitcairn, and that, as you know, is a small island, about two miles long and not more than a mile broad in its widest part.

EASTER ISLAND MAN.

"Easter Island is called Rapa Nui by the natives of Tahiti, and is of unmistakably volcanic origin. There is a large extinct crater on each end of the island, and numerous small ones between, the ground being thickly covered with black volcanic rock and obsidian in the western portion. The largest of these volcanoes is named Rauo Kao; it is over one thousand three hundred feet high, enclosing a fresh-water lake nearly three miles in circumference, the surface of which is partially covered with vegetable matter, over which a man may walk in places. The second one in size is extremely interesting on account of its being the place where the stone images were made from lava rock, a great number of which still remain, some unfinished and attached to the precipitous cliffs. An enormous number of these images is scattered all over the island, while there are ninety-three inside and one hundred and fifty-five immediately outside of the crater. They are in solid pieces, varying from five to seventy feet in height; some of the figures lying prostrate are twenty-seven feet long, and measure eight feet across the breast."

EASTER ISLAND WOMAN.

"Very much like the great statues at Thebes and Karnak in Egypt," said Fred.

"Yes," replied the Doctor, "and one of these statues measures twenty feet from the shoulder to the crown of the head. The sculpture is extremely rude, and as works of art the Easter Island statues bear no comparison to the Egyptian ones. The human body is represented terminating at the hips, the head is flat, the top of the forehead cut level so as to support a crown which was cut from red tufa found in one of the smaller craters. They were transported to villages near the sea, and placed upon stone platforms constructed in various heights and different lengths, facing the water. One of these platforms supported thirteen immense images, and all of those examined contained human bones, showing it to be a place of burial. Of these platforms one hundred and thirteen have been counted. On a precipice overlooking the sea is a village of ancient stone huts, where, it is said, the natives lived only during a portion of the year. Near by are also sculptured rocks, covered with curious and extremely interesting carvings.

STONE TABLET OF CHARACTER WRITING.

"The platforms are from two to three hundred feet long, and about thirty feet high, built of hewn stones five or six feet long, and accurately joined without cement. The platforms are at intervals all around the coast, and some of the headlands were levelled off to form similar resting-places for the images.

STONE PLATFORM FOR IMAGES.

"All of the principal images have the top of the head cut flat and crowned with a circular mass of red lava hewn perfectly round; some of these crowns are sixty-six inches in diameter, and fifty-two inches thick, and were brought eight miles from the spot where they were quarried. About thirty crowns are lying in the quarries, and some of them are fully ten feet in diameter, and of proportionate height."

Frank asked if the present inhabitants had any tradition concerning these statues.

"None whatever," was the reply. "At present there are less than two hundred people living there; they seem to be the degenerate remains of a race something like the Maoris of New Zealand, and they speak a language similar to those people. Although undoubtedly a cannibal race—in fact, one old man speaks with enthusiasm when asked regarding the custom—they are at present quiet and enlightened, but retain many superstitious ideas which they have received by transmission. They venerate a small sea-bird, the egg of which is sacred to them, and their season of feast begins in August, when the first eggs of these birds are taken from two barren rocks near the cliffs. Men and youths swim to these rocks, and the one who first secures an egg is held in high esteem; he lords it over the others for twelve months, his food being furnished for him, and he is not permitted to bathe for three months. A recent visitor says the people are so dirty that you could suppose every man, woman, and child had performed the successful feat the last feast-time. The last king was Kai Makor, who died about 1864, when Peruvian ships visited Rapa Nui, and a number of the natives were seized and taken to work the guano on the Chincha Islands, where the greater number died. A few were finally sent back, and they brought with them small-pox, which caused great havoc and nearly depopulated the island. Water is scarce, but the climate is equable, and one of the most delightful in the world, the thermometer seldom registering higher than 75° to 80° during the warmest season.

"An image and some other curiosities were brought away in 1886 by the United States steamer Mohican, which visited the island in that year. They are now in the Naval Museum at Washington, and it is hoped that some one will be able to decipher the hieroglyphics, which thus far have remained without an interpreter."

[CHAPTER IV.]

FROM THE MARQUESAS TO THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.—THE GREAT BARRIER REEF.—THE CORAL INSECT AND HIS WORK.—ATOLLS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES.—ORIGIN OF THE POLYNESIAN PEOPLE.—ARRIVAL AT PAPÉITI.—ON SHORE IN TAHITI.—A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS.—WORK OF THE MISSIONARIES.—THE FRENCH OCCUPATION.—VICTIMS FOR SACRIFICE.—OLD-TIME CUSTOMS.—PRODUCTS OF THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.—BECHE-DE-MER FISHING.—VISIT TO THE REEF.—CURIOUS THINGS SEEN THERE.—ADVENTURES WITH SHARKS, STINGAREES, AND OTHER MONSTERS.—GIGANTIC CLAMS.—VISITING THE MARKET.—EATING LIVE FISHES.—A NATIVE FEAST.—EXCURSION TO POINT VENUS.

COAST SCENERY, TAHITI.

When well clear of the Marquesas the Pera turned her prow to the south-west, in the direction of Tahiti, which lay about nine hundred miles away. The strong trade-wind bore her swiftly on her course, and on the fourth day of the voyage the lofty peaks of Otaheite's isle rose into view. The summits of the mountains seemed to pierce the sky, so sharp and steep were they, and almost to their very tops they were covered with verdure. Luxuriant forests were everywhere visible, and the shore was fringed with a dense growth of palms that seemed to rise from the water itself.

The central peak of Tahiti has an elevation of something more than seven thousand feet, and from this peak there is a series of ridges radiating towards the sea like the spokes of a wheel. Many of these ridges are so steep on their sides that they cannot be ascended, and so narrow that there is not room for an ordinary path. A man standing on one of these ridges could with his right hand throw a stone into one valley, and with his left a stone into another, whose inhabitants could communicate only by descending to the coast, or to the lowland which borders it. The valleys are luxuriant, and even the ridges are covered with vines and bushes.

As the youths, with their glasses, eagerly scanned the coast they were approaching, one of them called out that he could see a strip of calm water close to the shore.

"We are coming to the great barrier-reef of coral," said Doctor Bronson, "and the calm water that you see is between the reef and the shore.

SPECIMEN OF CORAL.

"Tahiti is one of the best examples of an island surrounded by a coral reef," the Doctor continued. "It extends quite around the island, sometimes only a few yards from it, and sometimes four or five miles distant. There are occasional openings through the reef, some wide and deep enough to permit the passage of large ships, and others practicable only for small boats. Inside the reef the water is calm, and a vessel once within it has a secure harbor."

The boys could see the surf breaking on the reef with great violence, and throwing spray high into the air. Outside was the ever-restless sea; inside lay the placid lagoon, which reflected the sunlight as in a mirror.

"Just think of it," said Frank; "that great reef, which resists the waves of the ocean, and could destroy the largest ship that floats, is built up by a tiny worm which we could crush between our fingers with the greatest ease. The patience of the honey-bee is nothing compared to that of the coral insect."

Fred asked what was the depth of water near the reef, both inside and outside.

Doctor Bronson answered that it varied greatly, the inner lagoon being sometimes only a few feet, or perhaps inches, in depth, and sometimes two, three, or five hundred feet. Outside there is generally a great depth of water, sometimes so much that the sounding-lead fails to find bottom at a distance of only a few yards. "This constitutes," he added, "one of the dangers of navigation, as a ship may be close upon a reef without being aware of it until too late.

THE CORAL WORM.

"The coral insect," he continued, "does not work at a greater depth than two hundred feet, and he ceases operations when he reaches the surface. When these reefs are more than two hundred feet deep it is supposed that the bottom has slowly receded and carried the reef with it; as the recession went on, the coral insect continued his work of building. It reminds me of what happens sometimes to a railway in a swampy region; the embankment for the track sinks from time to time, and a new one is built above it. After a while sufficient earth has been thrown in to make a solid foundation, and then the sinking ceases.

"The atoll is another curious form of the work of the coral insect," said the Doctor, continuing. "It is circular or oval in shape, the island forming a rim that encloses a lake or lagoon. There is always an opening from the sea to the lagoon, and it is generally on the leeward side. Sometimes there are two, or even three or more openings, but this is unusual; the island rises only a few feet above the water, and is the work of the coral insect upon what was once the crater of a volcano; at least that is the general belief.

"The atoll is not a desirable place for residence, as the ocean during severe storms is liable to break across the narrow strip of land and sweep away whatever may be standing there. Many atolls are uninhabited, and none of them has a large population; cocoa-palms, bread-fruit, and other tropical trees are generally found on the inhabited atolls, and partially or wholly supply the natives with food. In some instances the people support themselves by fishing either in the lagoon or in the ocean outside. The lagoon forms a fairly good harbor for ships and canoes, but sometimes the water in it is too deep for anchoring."

As the minutes rolled on, the outlines of the mountains and ridges, the valleys and forests, grew more and more distinct. Frank and Fred strained their eyes to discover an opening in the reef, but for some time their earnest gaze was unrewarded. At length, however, Frank saw a spot where the long line of spray appeared to be broken; gradually it enlarged, and revealed a passage into the great encircling moat of Tahiti. It was the entrance to the harbor of Papéiti, the capital of the French possessions in this part of the Pacific.

ON THE SHORE OF THE LAGOON.

The yacht glided safely through the channel and anchored in front of Papéiti, or Papaete, as some writers have it. Two French war-ships were lying there, and several schooners and other sailing-craft engaged in trade among the islands. Then there were some half-dozen ships and barks from various parts of the world, bringing cargoes of miscellaneous goods for the Tahitian market and carrying away the produce of the islands. Frank looked in vain for an ocean-going merchant steamer, and found, on inquiry, that the Society Islands are not visited by any of the steamships engaged in the navigation of the Pacific.

The Society Islands are a group, consisting of two clusters about seventy miles apart. Some geographers apply the name to the north-western cluster only, while the other is known as the Tahiti or Georgian group. The latter is the larger and more populous, and is a French colony, while the former is independent. The Spaniards claim to have discovered Tahiti in 1606, and it was visited in 1767 by Captain Wallis, who named it King George's Island. Two years later Captain Cook discovered the north-western cluster, called the whole group the Society Islands in honor of the Royal Geographical Society, and restored to Tahiti its native name.

"Why is Tahiti sometimes called Otaheite, and why is Hawaii, in the Sandwich Islands, sometimes called Owyhee?" Fred inquired.

A CABIN IN THE SUBURBS.

"Thereby hangs a tale," replied the Doctor, "or rather a great deal of conjecture. Some ethnographers think the islands of Polynesia were peopled from the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, while others think they were peopled from Japan. Advocates of either theory have a great number of arguments in its support. We haven't time to go over the list; and even if we did we should not be able to settle the question. The theory that the inhabitants of the Sandwich and Society islands came originally from Japan is supported by the use in their languages of the prefix O (signifying "honorable") exactly as it is used in Japan. As the Japanese say O-yama (honorable mountain), so the Hawaiians say O-wyhee, and the Tahitians O-taheite.

"Many Japanese sports, such as archery, wrestling, boxing, spear-throwing, and slinging stones, were in vogue in some of the islands at the time of their discovery; they are rapidly passing away as the people become civilized, and in another generation or two will hardly be heard of. In their language they are nearer like the Malay than the Japanese; that they are of Malay origin is very clearly proven, but exactly how they came here it is not likely we shall ever know."

While this conversation was going on the yacht was visited by a custom-house official, who took the declaration of the captain as to her nationality and name, and her object in visiting Tahiti, and then returned to shore. Our friends followed him, and in a very short time were pressing their feet against the solid earth of Papéiti. For an account of what they saw we will again refer to Fred's journal.

"You cannot see much of Papéiti from anywhere," said Fred, "because of the great numbers of trees that grow in and around the place. Here they are: bread-fruit, hibiscus, cocoa-palms, and half a dozen other varieties, so that nearly every house is hid from view until you are close upon it. The row of shops and cafés near the water is an exception to the rule; they are like the same kind of establishments everywhere in a French colony, and reveal the nationality of the place at a glance.

THE COAST IN A STORM.

"There are mountains in every direction excepting towards the sea, and through a gorge at the back of the town a particularly fine mountain is visible. Most of the houses are only one story in height, especially in the outskirts, where the well-to-do residents have their villas. In the town there are a few two or three storied buildings, belonging to the foreign merchants or used for Government purposes; but these are exceptions to the general aversion to stair-ways. Land is so cheap here that everybody ought to have plenty of room.

"The names of the streets make us think of Paris. The principal one is the Rue de Rivoli, and there we find the hotels, shops, and cafés, or rather the most of them. On the Rue do Commerce are the warehouses, where goods and provisions are stored; and the Rue de Pologne, which is the widest and best shaded of all, is mainly given up to the Chinese for shops and tea-houses. The Chinaman has taken root here, and flourishes; every year the Chinese hold upon business increases, and some of the French residents advocate the expulsion of the Mongolians, through fear that they will soon have a monopoly of the commerce of the islands.

"In the resident part of the town nearly every house stands in its own garden, and the most of these gardens are prettily laid out. There are good roads in and around the place, and we have had some charming drives, sometimes in carriages, which we hired at one of the hotels, and sometimes by invitation of the residents. We have had a most hospitable reception, and everybody from the Governor down has tried to make us enjoy our visit.

"The English consul invited us to dine at his country residence, and afterwards treated us to a moonlight excursion on the water. It was very pretty, as the lagoon was as calm as a mirror, and there were many boats out at the same time. The natives seem to be a careless, fun-loving people. Wherever there is a group of them there is always more or less laughter going on, and they seem to be constantly playing harmless little jokes on one another. The evenings here are delightful, and it is the custom to go out after dinner. The favorite resort is the lawn near the Government-house; a band from one of the ships-of-war plays there every evening, and always has a large audience. The natives are very fond of music, and when it is lively they fall to dancing on the green turf.

"The population of the two clusters that form the Society group is said to be a little less than twenty thousand, three-fourths of them belonging to the Tahitian cluster and one-fourth to the north-western. The native population of this island is about eight thousand. There are about one thousand Chinese on the islands, eight hundred French, two hundred and fifty British subjects, and one hundred and fifty Americans, and perhaps one hundred of other nationalities.

"They tell us that we can drive in a carriage all the way around Tahiti, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, and that we can hardly go a mile of this distance without coming to a stream of clear water rolling or rippling down from the mountains. Most of these streams are simply rivulets or brooks, but some of them are rivers too large and deep to be forded. Some of these rivers have been bridged, but where this has not been done they must be crossed by ferry-boats. Villages are scattered at intervals of a few miles, and any one who undertakes the journey can be comfortably lodged every night, especially if he sends a courier in advance to arrange matters for him. Colonel Bush had an idea of making the journey, but concluded it would be tiresome long before the circuit was completed, and so the scheme was abandoned.

"One of the early missionaries brought some orange-trees here, and they were found admirably adapted to the soil and climate of Tahiti. You see orange-groves or orange-trees everywhere, and we have never found finer oranges in any part of the world. It is a curious fact that the best trees are those which have grown from seed scattered carelessly about without any thought of planting; in nearly every case they are finer and more productive than those which have been carefully cultivated and transplanted.

"The French have a jardin d'essai, or Experimental Garden, where trees and plants from all parts of the world are cultivated with a view to finding those best adapted to Tahiti. As a result of this garden and other importations, the Tahitians now have mangoes, limes, shaddocks, citrons, guavas, custard-apples, tamarinds, peaches, figs, grapes, pineapples, watermelons, cucumbers, cabbages, and other fruits and vegetables of whose existence the people were entirely ignorant a hundred years ago.

"The French Government has a garrison of about four hundred soldiers in Tahiti, with a large staff of officials of various kinds—naval, military, and civil. The Governor is a personage of great local importance, as he has very liberal powers and can do pretty much as he likes. We found him a very pleasant gentleman. He invited all our party to a reception at the Government-house, and the officers of his staff showed us many attentions.

A FRENCH BISHOP.

"The French took possession of Tahiti in 1842; they had been waiting for an opportunity, and it came in that year. Three Catholic missionaries had been expelled by Queen Pomare at the instigation, so the French say, of the English missionaries. A French fleet came to Papéiti and threatened to bombard the town unless her Majesty should pay immediately a large indemnity, and consent to the return of the expelled missionaries. The Queen was quite unable to raise the money, and the French took possession and established their protectorate.

"The protectorate continued till 1880, when the King, Pomare V., was persuaded to cede the nominal sovereignty in consideration of a life pension of twelve thousand dollars annually. The annexation of Tahiti as a French colony was formally proclaimed in Papéiti March 24th, 1881.

VIEW IN AN ORANGE GROVE.

"The first missionaries that came here were sent by the London Mission Society in 1797; but they made little progress in the conversion of the natives, and after a time were driven away in consequence of inter-tribal wars among the people. In 1812 the King invited them to return; they did so, and in the following year a church was established.

"The King was converted to Christianity, together with several of his priests and subordinate chiefs, and from that time on the work of the missionaries progressed rapidly. Long before the French took possession the entire population were nominally Christians, and had burned their idols and destroyed their heathen temples. There is no evidence that they ever practised cannibalism, but they were cruel in war. Prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood, or offered as sacrifices to the gods; human sacrifices were common, and there were certain tribes and families from whom, in times of peace, the victims for sacrifice were taken.

"In olden times these tribes and families were selected, and it is said there was a third of the population whose lives might be taken at any moment. When a victim was called for, resistance was useless, as the whole population, even including a man's nearest neighbors, united to carry him to the marae, or altar of sacrifice.

NATIVE BAMBOO HOUSE, TAHITI.

"In the early days of Christianity the victims for sacrifice were taken from among the converts, and sometimes the heathen tribes combined to hunt down the Christians in order to offer them to the gods. It was the story over again of the persecution of the early Christians in Rome and elsewhere in Europe.

"When the French took possession of the islands they oppressed the English missionaries in various ways, and had it not been for the persistence of the natives in adhering to the men who converted them, the representatives of the London Mission would have been driven out altogether. The trouble was finally compromised by allowing the English missionaries to remain under certain restrictions, and establishing a French Protestant mission to work in harmony with the French Catholic one.

"The great bulk of the people are Protestants, as they adhere to the faith to which they were originally converted. The Society Islands as a whole now contain three English missionaries, sixteen native ordained ministers, and more than two hundred other preachers and teachers. There are four thousand three hundred church members, fifty schools, and more than two thousand scholars attending them. The French do not make much interference except on the island of Tahiti, where only one English missionary is allowed to reside. He is not, however, recognized as a missionary to the natives, but as pastor of the Bethel Church at Papéiti."

"That will do for statistics on that subject," said Frank. "While you have been looking up these points in the history of the islands I've been finding out what they produce."

"I was getting around to that," replied Fred; "but if you've found it out I'm glad. What is it?"

NATIVES OF THE SOCIETY ISLANDS FISHING.

"From all I can learn," said Frank, "the colony isn't a very prosperous one for the French. The exports amount to about a million dollars annually, and the imports to seven hundred thousand dollars; there are no import duties except on fire-arms and spirits, but I am told it is proposed to place a duty on nearly everything consumed here, so as to make the colony self-supporting.

"The people have quite abandoned the manufacture of tappa, or native cloth, and dress entirely in goods of European make. They have learned how to distil intoxicating liquor from the orange, and this delicious fruit threatens to be a curse to them instead of a blessing. They have given up tattooing, which was never practised to so great an extent as in the Marquesas; there would be no use for tattooing now, as they have all taken to wearing clothes just as in the Sandwich Islands.

"As to the products of the islands," continued Frank, "they consist principally of cocoanut-oil and coppra (the dried substance of the cocoanut, from which oil is extracted after its arrival in Europe), arrow-root, cotton, sugar, and mother-of-pearl shells. The cotton cultivation has not been profitable; and as to the trade in sugar, it has not been anywhere nearly so successful as in the Sandwich Islands."

A SEA-URCHIN.

"You have omitted one thing from your list of products," said Doctor Bronson, as Frank paused. "You have made no mention of beche-de-mer."

"That's so," was the reply; "but the fact is, I wanted to learn more about it than I know now."

"I thought so," said the Doctor, smiling, "and so I've arranged that we will go to the reef to-morrow morning to see how beche-de-mer is taken. We must make an early start, so as to be there at daylight."

Further talk about the Society Islands was indefinitely postponed, and the party adjourned to bed. All were up in ample season on the morrow for the excursion to the reef.

The best time for visiting the reef is at low tide. The tides in the Society Islands differ from those in most parts of the world, by never varying from one day to another throughout the year. At noon and at midnight is the height of the flood, and at six o'clock morning and evening is the lowest of the ebb. Ordinarily the rise is about two feet; periodically twice a year there comes a tidal-wave that breaks over the reef with great violence, and sweeps across the lagoon to the shore.

Frank and Fred sought an explanation of this tidal peculiarity, but were unable to obtain a satisfactory one. A resident of Papéiti said the tides were so certain in their movements that many people were able to tell the time of day very nearly by a glance at the reef.

THE BOTTOM OF THE LAGOON.

To the student of marine life a coral reef is full of interest, and that of Tahiti is one of the finest in the world. Here are some of the curious things that were described by our friends:

"We saw," said Frank, "some enormous starfish with fifteen arms covered with sharp spines of a gray and orange color. These spines were on the top of the arms; the bottom had an array of yellow feelers like fingers, with suckers at the ends. The boatmen cautioned us not to touch these creatures, but their caution was not needed, as we all kept our hands at a respectful distance.

SEA-ANEMONE AND HERMIT CRAB.

"There were thousands and thousands of sea-urchins, some of them with spikes as large as your fingers and stiff as a nail, down to little fellows the size of a pigeon's egg, and armed with long needles like the quills of a porcupine. It is no joke to step on one of these things when you are bathing in the sea and have your feet unprotected. Somebody has likened them to thistles, and says they more or less resemble hedgehogs and porcupines. Urchin, according to the dictionary, means hedgehog, and therefore the name is not inappropriate.

"There are sea-anemones as large as a cheese, and of all the colors you can imagine. An amusing thing about them was that a lot of little fishes, not more than two inches long, were playing hide and seek, swimming around among the spines of these huge polyps. The water is very clear, and as you look over the side of the boat into the garden of coral with its great variety of colors, and its numerous inhabitants, finny, shelly, and otherwise, it is like a glimpse of fairy-land.

"It made our flesh creep just a little to see the water-snakes coiling around the branches of coral, and gliding about all unconscious of being gazed at. Then there are gold-fish, blue-fish (not the blue-fish of America, but a little fellow of the brightest sky-blue you ever saw), fish of a pale green, and so on through all the scale of colors. As they swam among the corals they reminded us of butterflies in a garden."

HERMIT-CRAB AND SEA-SHELL.

Fred saw a shell travelling along in a most unexpected way, which he could not understand until he ascertained that it was occupied by a hermit-crab. Then there were large crabs in their own shells, and also lobsters, which kept a sharp eye out for danger, and retired to places of security when the boat approached.

The youths had hoped to be able to walk on the reef, but the surf was so high that it was unsafe to venture there. Besides, the walking, even when the reef is comparatively dry, is not of the best, as the surface is rough, and there are many holes in the coral in which the novice may get a dangerous fall.

Many fishing-boats were about, as the time of low tide is the best for fishing, and the water furnishes an important part of the food of the people. Several fishermen, nearly naked, and armed with spears, were in the foaming waters at the outer edge of the reef, waiting, with their weapons poised, ready to strike anything that came within their reach. A dozen or more large fish were taken in this way while our friends were looking on; not once did the spearmen miss hitting their mark, and Frank and Fred both wanted to applaud them for their accuracy of aim.

Inside the lagoon other fishermen were pursuing their prey in boats, the spearmen standing ready in the bow to embrace every opportunity of striking. Men and women were fishing after the ordinary manner of civilization, and with civilized hooks and lines. Formerly they used hooks of pearl-shell and bone, and also hooks of the roots of the ironwood-tree. But in these modern days the ordinary hooks of commerce are almost the only ones ever seen in Tahiti.

Then there were net-fishers in great number, and with many varieties of net. Seines, purse-nets, casting-nets, dip-nets, all were there, and all handled with the dexterity which is only attained by long practice.

VIEW AMONG THE CORAL BRANCHES.

The guide explained that some of the fishes which were excellent eating at one time of the year were poisonous at another. The poisonous condition is caused by their crunching the coral at the time it is said to be in blossom, and by eating sea-centipedes, which resemble a yard or two of black string with the smallest imaginable legs. All the land-crabs of Tahiti are edible, but several sea-crabs are not; and there is one variety so poisonous that it is only eaten when the eater wishes to commit suicide.

Beautiful shells are brought up from the depths of the waters, but they must be touched with great care, as the spines of many of them are poisonous. One of them, scientifically known as Conus textilis, a beautiful shell of cone-like shape, has been known to cause death in a few hours, the symptoms being much like those produced by the bite of a rattlesnake. Some of the jelly-fishes of England and America have the same poisonous character, but in a much smaller degree.

The guide hailed a boat which was filled with sea-slugs, sea-cucumbers, tripang, or beche-de-mer, as this article of commerce is variously known, and the youths had an opportunity of examining the curious marine product. They were cautioned not to touch them, as these apparently helpless creatures, which resembled sausages or bags of India-rubber filled with sea-water, were not as harmless as they appeared. The guide said they ejected this water when touched; and if it fell on a wound or scratch, or into the eye, it caused intense pain, and sometimes resulted in temporary or even permanent blindness.

The sea-slugs were of all colors—black, red, gray, and two or three varieties of green. The most dangerous is an olive-green one marked with orange spots, and hence called the leopard. When it is disturbed it throws up long filaments like threads or strings, which adhere very tenaciously; and wherever they touch the skin they raise a burning blister.

Most of the sea-slugs are caught in still water by divers, who use forks with long prongs, with which they secure their prey. There is one variety, the red one, which is taken in the surf, but all the others prefer quiet nooks. When a canoe has been filled with these repulsive-looking objects it proceeds to the drying establishment on shore. There the creatures are thrown into a kettle of boiling water sufficiently long to kill them; then they are cleaned, and stewed for half an hour, and then placed on racks of sticks for smoking and drying.

The smoking must be kept up for three days, and longer if the weather is damp, and then the leathery substance is ready for packing in palm-leaf baskets for transportation to China. Great care must be taken to have it thoroughly dried, as the least remaining moisture will spoil it during its long voyage in the hold of a ship.

A FISH INSIDE A SEA-SLUG.

Sometimes fishes are found inside the sea-slug, and it seems to be well established that they live altogether in this contracted sea-water tank. When taken out and placed in clear salt-water they soon die, in spite of every precaution.

While looking over the side of the boat Fred saw a large clam, and immediately coveted it. The guide engaged a diver who was near by, and for a small reward the man went below for the prize.

The clam was lying with his mouth open, and evidently enjoying his morning bath of sea-water. The diver inserted a sharply pointed stick into the flesh of the mollusk, and the shell closed upon it instantly. Then he severed the filaments which attached the clam to the rock, and with one hand below the shell and another holding the stick, made his way to the surface.

CORALLINE.

"Most of the diving for clams is done by the women," said the guide, while Fred was gazing at the huge shell, nearly two feet long, which lay before him. "Many a woman, and many a man too," continued the guide, "has been nipped by the shell and drowned there, totally unable to escape. In all parts of the South Pacific you will hear horrible stories of death in this way. These clams grow to a great size, as you see; half a shell often serves as a bath-tub for a child, and in the Catholic churches of Polynesia it is used for holy water.

"Some years ago a native in the Paumotan Islands was diving for pearl-oysters, and while feeling around for them accidentally thrust his hand inside a gaping clam-shell, which closed on him instantly. The shell was in a hole in the coral, so that he could not reach the back to detach it; the only thing he could do was to sever his fingers with the knife in his free hand. He thus saved himself from being drowned, but was maimed for life."

The guide called the attention of the youths to some large eels which were coiled up in the coral. He said they were very voracious, and many natives had been deprived of fingers by these uncanny creatures. They sometimes reach a length of eight or ten feet, and one poor fellow had the whole calf of a leg bitten off by one of them.

Then there are a great many cuttle-fish, and sometimes the girls and women are caught and overpowered by them. The danger from these creatures is so well known that the natives rarely go out alone to dive for them or for clams. Some of the cuttle-fish measure six feet across; they lie in holes in the coral, and throw out their long arms to grasp anything that comes in their reach. They cling around the body of a diver or wrap themselves about his head, and unless speedily relieved by his companions his death is inevitable.

"Are there any more dangers among the reefs?" said Frank, when all these had been recounted.

"Yes," was the reply; "there are great numbers of sharks, some of them harmless and others dangerous. The worst is a white shark, thirty feet long, and he is so bold that he has been known to attack canoes, either by overturning them and throwing their occupants into the water, or by seizing an arm or leg which happened to be out-stretched, and dragging its owner overboard.

OCTOPUS, OR DEVIL-FISH.

"There is a smaller shark, six or eight feet long, which lives in caves in the coral, and comes out in search of food. Its flesh is good to eat, and one of these sharks is quite a prize. In some of the groups of islands the fishermen dive into the shark caverns while the monster is asleep, and pass a noose around his tail; then the man rises instantly to the surface, and his companions haul up the ugly creature tail first, stunning him with a club or hammer as he comes over the side of the boat."

"But suppose," said one of the youths, "that after the diver has entered the cave the shark should change his position and get across the door-way."

"In that case," replied the guide, "his only mode of escape will be to tickle the shark so as to induce him to move aside. He can only do this when its tail is towards him; if he has turned the other way the man's fate is practically sealed."

Fred concluded that he would never indulge in diving for sharks as a means of livelihood, and Frank fully agreed with him.

STINGAREE, OR SEA-DEVIL.

Then the guide told them of the stingaree, or sting-ray, which is not unknown in American waters, but grows to a much greater size here than on the coast of the United States. Its tail has a sharp, barbed point, which generally breaks off when struck into the flesh; the point is serrated on both sides, the teeth pointing backward, and so it works its way inward like the quill of a porcupine. Other dangers of the water were described; but it is time to return from the reef, and so we will leave them there.

On their return to Papéiti our friends visited the market, going first to the section where fish were offered for sale. Here is Frank's note upon what they saw there:

"There were fishes of all sizes and kinds: bonito, rockfish, eels, clams, oysters, mussels, turtle, salmon from the rivers, prawns, crabs, and a great many varieties of finny and scaly things that have no name in English. The natives are fond of raw fish, and we saw them swallowing little fishes whole and slices of big ones just as we would dispose of a basket of strawberries. One of the first persons we saw in the market was a pretty girl of eighteen or twenty who was crunching live shrimps, or letting them wriggle down her throat as readily as she would swallow so many sugar-plums.

"Some European residents have acquired the taste for raw fish, and they say it is delicious. We have not ventured upon it, though we take clams and oysters raw according to the practice of our own country. The tropical bivalves are not so good as those of temperate regions, and I believe this is the general testimony of travellers.

"The market is well supplied with chickens, turkeys, pigeons, and ducks, which are nearly always sold alive, as the heat of the climate prevents their being kept more than a few hours after slaughtering. Pigs are sold alive, and they are carried about suspended by their hind-legs from a pole. It is painful to hear them squeal, and there ought to be a Tahitian branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to put a stop to this barbarity.

GARDEN OF A SUBURBAN RESIDENCE.

"Most of the market-people were natives, but I observed a good many Chinese there, especially in the section devoted to vegetables and fruits. These people take very naturally to vegetable gardens, and their patient industry is well rewarded by the fertile soil of Tahiti."

GATHERING ORANGES FOR THE FEAST.

On reaching the hotel, our friends found an invitation to a feast which one of the merchants was to give the next day at his country residence, in native style. They immediately sent acceptances, and were ready at the time appointed for the carriage which was provided by their thoughtful host.

"When we reached the house," said Fred, "each of us was provided with a new bathing-dress and towels, and proceeded to the river close by, where numbers of guests were already enjoying a bath in the clear water. The party straggled back in twos and threes; and as fast as we returned every one of us was crowned with a wreath of flowers after the Tahitian custom. There was a great deal of fun and laughter about this part of the entertainment, but everybody enjoyed it, and entered heartily into the sport of the occasion. The guests included all our party from the yacht, the officers from the ships of war, every stranger of consequence in Papéiti, and pretty nearly every respectable resident.

"By the time everybody had returned from the bath and received his crown the feast was announced, and we went in procession to the dining-hall. This proved to be a temporary building, made of a slight framework of bamboos and banana-trees, covered with a thatch of palm-leaves and decorated with festoons of leaves and vines.

"The building was erected over a fine piece of lawn, and the table was spread on the grass. Instead of a table as we understand it, fresh banana-leaves were spread on the grass, and on these the good things of the feast were laid. On the grass at the edge of this novel table-cloth mats made of cocoa fibre were spread, and on these mats we sat down native fashion. It was rather awkward getting down to the floor, but of course the awkwardness added to the fun of the occasion.

"The substantial part of the feast consisted of turkeys, chickens, and young pigs, roasted and served cold, and then there were all kinds of fin and shell fish, both raw and cooked. All the fruits of the island were there, and all the vegetables, including yams, sweet-potatoes, cucumbers, and the like. European wines took the place of the native drink, kava, which is rapidly going out of use.

"Instead of plates, each of us had a pile of bread-fruit leaves which served as plates, and in front of each guest there were four half cocoanut-shells. One was full of drinking-water, the second full of milk, the third contained chopped cocoanut, and the fourth sea-water. The sea-water was emptied into the chopped cocoanut to form a sauce like the Chinese soy, into which the various articles of food were dipped before being conveyed to the mouth, and then the shell was filled with fresh water, and used as a finger-glass.

"We enjoyed the feast very much, though all of us confessed afterwards to a back-ache, from the novelty of our positions. After the feast there was dancing in the spacious parlor of our host, and the festivities were kept up until late in the evening."

TAMARIND-TREE AT POINT VENUS.

An excursion was made the next day to Point Venus, which has a historic interest, as it is the promontory where Captain Cook made the astronomical observations by which he determined the correct position of the Society Islands. The name of the place commemorates his observation of the transit of Venus which he and his scientific party made here in 1769.

It was a delightful ride along the Broom-road, as it is called, shaded by palm and bread-fruit trees, and through groves of oranges, citrons, guavas, bananas, and other tropical productions. Our friends inspected the light-house which is maintained here to direct the mariner approaching Papéiti, and Frank made a sketch of the tamarind-tree planted by Captain Cook near the spot where he made the famous observations.

A GROVE OF COCOANUT TREES.

[CHAPTER V.]

FROM THE SOCIETY TO THE SAMOAN ISLANDS.—BEFORE THE TRADE-WINDS.—NOTES ABOUT THE MISSIONARIES.—OPPOSITION OF TRADERS TO MISSIONARIES.—HOW POLYNESIA WAS CHRISTIANIZED.—THE WORK OF THE MISSIONS.—REV. JOHN WILLIAMS.—ROMANTIC STORY OF THE HERVEY GROUP.—THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.—THE WESLEYAN AND OTHER MISSIONS.—DEATH OF MR. WILLIAMS.—SANDAL-WOOD TRADERS.—POLYNESIAN SLAVERY.—LABOR-VESSELS AND THE LABOR-TRADE.—HOW NATIVES WERE KIDNAPPED.—"THE MISSIONARY TRICK."—THE MUTINY ON THE CARL.—CAPTURE OF THE DAPHNE.—HOW LABOR IS OBTAINED AT PRESENT.

RUNNING BEFORE THE TRADE-WINDS.

The Society Islands are between latitude 16° and 18° south, and longitude 148° and 155° west; the Samoan Islands, the next destination of the Pera, lie in latitude 13° to 15° south, and longitude 169° to 173° west. Consequently the course of the yacht was a little north of west, and gave the party a pleasant run before the north-east trade-wind, the crew having hardly anything to do from the time the last peak of the Society Islands disappeared until the mountains of Samoa came into view. All the world over, there is no more delightful sailing than in the trade-winds. A ship bowls along for ten, twenty, or perhaps thirty days, without squaring a yard or changing a brace, and all the time she carries every stitch of her canvas, and the water beneath her bows is a bank of foam.

DR. COAN, MISSIONARY TO HAWAII.

During the voyage our young friends busied themselves as usual in learning something about the regions whither they were bound, as well as perfecting their information about what they were leaving behind. The conversation turned one day upon the work of the missionaries in the South Pacific in redeeming the inhabitants of the islands from their former condition of barbarism.

"The missionaries have not received half the credit they deserve," said Doctor Bronson, in reply to a question which Fred propounded. "It is the fashion among certain men who have had commercial relations with these islands to deride the missionaries and throw ridicule on their work, and sometimes travellers fall into the same way of talking. There are idlers and useless men and women among the missionaries, just as there are in every occupation in life, but this circumstance does not justify the denunciation that has been heaped upon the entire body."

Frank asked why it was that so many men engaged in commerce were opposed to the missionaries.

"Principally for the reason," was the reply, "that the missionaries defend the natives against the dishonesty of certain classes of traders, and thus reduce their profits. There are honest men and dishonest ones engaged in commerce in Polynesia, just as there are elsewhere. When you hear a Polynesian merchant denouncing the missionaries in vehement terms, you may fairly conclude that the missionaries have stood in his way when he was endeavoring to defraud the natives. He is a man not to be trusted, at least that is a fair inference, though in this as in everything else he may be an exception.

NO RESPECT FOR MISSIONARIES.

"Let me give you an illustration of this," continued the Doctor. "Some years ago I heard a retired sea-captain in New York denouncing the missionaries, and declaring that they had ruined the trade of the South Pacific. It was at a dinner-party, and before the end of the evening the old captain became quite communicative about the ways of commerce with Polynesia and the Malay Archipelago. Among other things he told how they traded with the natives in his younger days. 'We used,' said he, 'to take our old-fashioned balance scales on shore with our fifty-six pound and smaller weights with handles to them. We set up the scales, and then the natives brought forward some bags whose exact weight they knew. These bags were used for testing our weights, to see that they were correct. Of course they were all right; the testing and setting up the scales took the best part of the afternoon, and then we knocked off for the day.

"We left the scales on shore where they had been set up, but took the weights back to the ship "for safety." They were hollow, and the handles were screwed in; during the night we unscrewed the handles, filled the hollow space with lead, and then screwed the handles back again so neatly that nobody would ever discover anything. In this way we managed to get the cargo to average 160 to 170 pounds a picul (133 pounds); and in those days a supercargo or captain who couldn't make a cargo come up to at least 150 pounds a picul wasn't wanted another voyage by the owners. Trade went on that way until the missionaries found out all about this and other tricks, and told the natives. They never would have suspected anything if it hadn't been for the missionaries.'

"This man," continued the Doctor, "was no worse than many others in the same line of business; and if all stories are true, he was no worse than many of our forefathers, who made money by their dealings with the savages in the early days of American colonization. The belief that it is no sin to cheat the infidel and heathen is not by any means confined to the followers of Mohammed. It is easy to understand why he was opposed to the missionary labors in the South Seas, as they certainly tended, in his estimation, to the ruin of commerce."

One of the youths asked if this opposition to the Christianizing of the heathen was prevalent among the large mercantile houses, as well as among the small and independent traders.

"It is impossible to answer this question with plain yes or no," was the reply; "but it is safe to say that a very large section of the commercial community of every nation is unfavorable or, at all events, indifferent to missionary enterprises. Even national power is sometimes invoked in the interest of commerce, without regard to the effect upon the heathen. British artillery forced the Chinese to open their markets to the opium of India, and the power of British, French, German, and other arms on the coast of Africa, for purposes of trade, is well known. Even America is not without sin in this respect; American diplomacy, backed by American ships of war, opened the ports of Japan, and the history of our dealings with our own Indians reveals many instances of bloodshed or oppression in the interests of post-traders and other speculators.

TRADING STATION IN THE PACIFIC.

"Until its failure a few years ago, the German house of Godefroy & Sons was by far the largest firm or association doing business in the Pacific. It had large fleets of ships, it had branch houses in many parts of the world; in numerous islands of the Pacific its agents were established, and it owned lands and buildings of immense value. In the harbor of Apia, Samoa, they had a ship-yard, where they not only repaired old ships but built new ones, and they owned several excellent harbors in other parts of Polynesia. There was not a single group of islands of any consequence where they were not established, and they had a great influence with the German Government.

"Now, do you suppose this great house was friendly to the missionaries—the men who came here and opened the way for commerce? Not a bit of it. Here is an extract from their general orders to their agents everywhere:

"'Never assist missionaries by word or deed, but, wheresoever you may find them, use your best influence to obstruct and exclude them.'[3]

"The effect of these instructions is illustrated in the experience of the American missionary ship Morning Star, several years ago, in a visit to the Kingsmill group of islands, near the equator. A pilot came out to meet the ship, and made her anchor three miles from shore to wait the permission of the King before any one could land. When the King learned that it was a missionary ship, he sent word that he would supply any needed provisions, but on no account could any one come on shore. The traders had told him that if any missionaries were allowed to land they would bewitch him and his people, and he had determined to protect himself from harm.

"Numerous instances of the demoralizing effects of commerce, when controlled by bad men, can be given. The missionaries were the first to occupy Polynesia, when traders could not venture there; some of these good men lost their lives, but the work of taming the savages went on until commerce could follow in their footsteps. You might naturally expect that commerce would be grateful, but such is far from being the case."

Then the conversation turned upon the history of missionary efforts in the South Pacific from the opening enterprise of the London Mission near the end of the last century. Frank and Fred made copious notes on the subject from the books within their reach, and the information supplied by the Doctor, and from these notes they subsequently condensed the following interesting story:

JOHN WESLEY, THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

The London Missionary Society was formed in 1795 by zealous men of different denominations; the call for the first meeting was signed by eighteen Independent clergymen, seven Presbyterian, three Wesleyan (Methodist), and three Episcopal, and the assemblage was held September 22d of that year. The islands of the Pacific were then attracting attention in consequence of the mutiny of the Bounty and the death of Captain Cook, and they were selected as the first field of operations.

Many young men offered themselves as missionaries, and of all the number of applicants twenty-nine were selected. The first delegation landed on Tahiti March 4, 1797, and formed the first mission of the Society. From that beginning the South Seas have been gradually covered with missions, and the Society has pushed its work into other fields which we need not consider here. It still adheres to its original plan of avoiding denominational differences of doctrine and Church government, and zealously pursues its work. Nearly all the denominations of Protestants have since organized separate missions of their own, both in Great Britain and America, for spreading the Gospel in the South Seas. In our account of the Sandwich and Society islands the work of the missionaries has been described; we have seen how whole populations have renounced heathenism and its practices, have been provided with written languages, and with schools and churches, and have been changed from savages to civilized men and women. And all this is due to the work of the missionary, who labored for the good of his fellow-man.

MISSION CHURCH AND STATION.

More than three hundred islands of the Pacific have abandoned their heathenism, and nearly half a million of Polynesian savages have been virtually Christianized. Their communicants who have been gathered into the churches number fully sixty thousand, not including the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, who are now supporting missions of their own.

One reason of the success of the mission work is the common-sense that prevailed at the outset in dividing the field among the different denominations, so that the minds of the natives should not be confused as to the character of the teachings they were receiving.

This was done through a friendly agreement between the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Mission, the former having exclusive charge of the work in the Samoan Islands, and the Wesleyans taking possession of the Feejee and Tonga groups. Other groups were disposed of in the same way as time went on, and the arrangement was found entirely satisfactory. Catholic missions have been established in some of the islands where the Protestant missions were already settled; they have made poor progress, as the natives showed an unwillingness to abandon the faith they had adopted for another.

MISSION PARK MONUMENT.

The American Board of Foreign Missions was organized in Mission Park, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in the early part of this century, and the organization is commemorated by an appropriate monument. It has evangelized the Hawaiian Islands, and carried on work in the Marquesas, Gilbert, Marshall, and Caroline islands. Since 1873 most of the active labor has been performed by the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, which owns a mission vessel, the Morning Star.

MISSION SHIP ON HER VOYAGE.

The London Missionary Society has missions in the Society, Tuamotu, Hervey or Cook, Austral, Samoa, Tokelau, Ellice, Gilbert, and Loyalty groups, on Niue and several other isolated islands, and in New Guinea. It owns two vessels, the John Williams and the Ellengowan.

The Australian Wesleyan Conference supports missions in Tonga, Feejee, Samoa, Rotumah, and New Britain; the Presbyterian churches of Australia have a mission in the New Hebrides, and possess a mission vessel, called the Dayspring.

The Melanesian Episcopal Mission is maintained in the Banks', Santa Cruz, and Solomon islands, and has a mission vessel, called the Southern Cross. The Catholics have missions on all the islands controlled by the French, and on most of the others, but they did not make their appearance until long after the work had been well under way in the hands of the Protestant organizations.

A considerable proportion of the early missionaries were murdered by the natives, whose good they sought, and others died of disease, privation, and the effects of the climate. But the ranks were steadily filled up, and the work went on; the native converts and teachers were fully as zealous as the white men who had taught them the new religion, and much of the work of instruction was performed by them. Whenever native teachers were murdered by the savages among whom they had taken their residences, others volunteered to fill their places. The following incident is recorded in the history of mission work in Polynesia:

In 1822 the mission ship of the Rev. John Williams anchored off an island which proved to be Mangaia of the Hervey group. Three Tahitian teachers, two of them accompanied by their wives, volunteered to land and establish a mission. No sooner were they on shore than they were attacked and plundered of everything they possessed, and they only escaped with their lives by swimming back through the surf to the ship.

A few months later the mission ship went there again, and two unmarried teachers, Davida and Tiere, sprang into the sea and swam to the shore, carrying nothing but the clothing they wore and a portion of the New Testament in Tahitian, which was wrapped in cloth and tied on their heads. A great crowd assembled at the landing, and as they stepped on shore several warriors levelled spears at them. The King took the swimmers under his protection, treated them kindly, took them to the temple, and pronounced them tabu, or sacred, so that the natives should not harm them.

Within two years Tiere died, but the work of conversion went on so well that one day the King and his chiefs determined to give up idolatry. They carried the thirteen idols which they had hitherto worshipped to the house of Davida, and announced that for the future they would worship the God of the white man. These thirteen idols are now preserved in the museum of the London Missionary Society.

LANDING ON AN ATOLL OF THE HERVEY GROUP.

In 1821 Mr. Williams decided to send a mission from Raiatea to the Hervey Isles, of which very little was known beyond the bare existence of such a group, and that it was inhabited by fierce cannibals. Several native converts from Raiatea were landed on the island of Aitutaki; they were well received by the chief and his people, but Mr. Williams had great fears for their safety, owing to the bad character of the cannibal inhabitants.

In the following year, when the mission ship went there again, great was the joy of Mr. Williams to learn that all the inhabitants had abandoned idolatry, burned their temples, and decided to be Christians; they had built a large church, kept the Sabbath religiously, and on the day following the arrival of the mission ship two thousand of them assembled on the beach in solemn prayer, which was led by the delighted missionary. After the service they brought their idols and carried them on board the mission ship, so that the people of the other islands might see for themselves that they had discarded altogether the worship of the worthless images.

The story of the conversion of the inhabitants of the island of Raratonga, of the Hervey group, sounds like romance. So little was known of this island that Mr. Williams had great trouble in finding it, as its latitude and longitude had not been established. Among the converts on another island were six natives of Raratonga; one of these men told Mr. Williams that if he would sail to a given point on the island of Aitutaki, he could take bearings that would carry him where he wished to go. So, taking the six Raratongans on board, he steered for the point indicated, and by following the directions of the man the island they sought was reached.

The young King came on board, and agreed to take the six natives ashore, and also a Tahitian teacher, who had volunteered to remain. The King, Matea, a handsome fellow six feet high, and with every inch of his skin elaborately tattooed, was one of the first converts. Within a year the whole population had become Christian, and there was not a house on the island where the family did not assemble morning and evening for divine worship. Mr. Williams and another missionary went there with their families in 1827, and were met at the shore by several thousands of natives, who shook hands with them so vigorously that their arms ached for hours afterwards. A few days after their arrival the people came in procession, bringing fourteen enormous idols, for which they had no further use, the smallest of them being fifteen feet high.

A new church was erected capable of containing three thousand people; some of the idols were used as pillars of this building, and the rest were burned. The railing of the pulpit stairs of this church was made of spears which the chiefs contributed, and all the heathen temples, and even their foundations, were completely broken up.

The Hervey Islands are now a centre of missionary work in the South Pacific. The islanders have a theological college, which has sent out nearly two hundred trained teachers and preachers of their own, and about half this number are scattered among the isles of the Pacific where the inhabitants have not yet renounced heathenism or their cannibal practices. In 1881 four of these missionaries, with their wives and children, twelve persons in all, were murdered by the natives of New Guinea, and several others narrowly escaped with their lives.

Shortly after settling in the Hervey Islands Mr. Williams determined to carry the Gospel to the Navigator's, or Samoan group. Having no ship, he built a boat, sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, with the aid of the Raratonga natives. He wanted a blacksmith's bellows to shape the iron-work, and in order to make it he killed three of his four goats to obtain their skins. In a single night his bellows was devoured by the rats, the only quadrupeds indigenous to the islands, and he then invented a pump by which air could be forced.

His boat took fifteen weeks for its construction. Its sails were of native matting, the cordage was of the bark of the hibiscus, the oakum for calking the seams was made from banana stumps and cocoanut husks, and the sheaves were of iron-wood. To obtain planks, trees were split with wedges, and then cut up with hatchets. One anchor was of stone, and another of iron-wood, and the provisions consisted of pigs, cocoanuts, bananas, and other tropical products. In this vessel he sailed during the next four years to many islands of the Pacific, distributing teachers among them, and doing everything in his power for the good of the people. In 1834 he visited England, and returned in the missionary ship Camden, which had been purchased by the London Missionary Society.

COCOA PALMS IN THE HERVEY ISLANDS.

Mr. Williams continued his work until 1839, when he, with a companion missionary, James Harris, was murdered by the natives of the New Hebrides Islands, whither he had gone to plant a mission. The stories of the conversion of the people of the Tonga, Samoan, and Feejee groups is only scarcely less romantic than what has just been narrated of the Hervey Isles. In all these islands, as well as in the Sandwich and Society groups, it is probable that the proportion of the inhabitants who observe the Sabbath, attend divine service, and gather in their families for morning and evening worship, is greater than among the people of Great Britain or the United States.

In their inter-tribal wars, which sometimes occur in these days, though far less frequently than before the advent of the missionaries, all parties abstain from fighting on Sunday, and men may safely circulate from one hostile camp to another.

And all this has been accomplished through the self-abnegation of the men who obeyed the divine injunction, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Volumes could be written, as volumes have been written, but even then the whole story of the work and sufferings of the missionaries in the South Seas would remain untold.

Referring to the opposition of the traders to the missionaries, Doctor Bronson said that the death of Mr. Williams was due to the conduct of the seamen, though it was not directly instigated by them.

"One of the products of the Pacific Islands," said the Doctor, "is sandal-wood, which brings a high price in the Chinese market, and so much has it been sought in the last fifty or sixty years that on many of the islands it has entirely disappeared. The sandal-wood traders committed many outrages on the islands that they visited, and these outrages naturally led to reprisals.

"When Mr. Williams and his friend landed on Erromanga, in the New Hebrides, a party of warriors rushed upon them from a thicket where they had been lying concealed. In an instant the missionaries were clubbed, and their bodies were afterwards roasted and eaten by the savages whom the devoted men sought to reclaim. Investigation showed that a sandal-wood ship had visited the island a few weeks before, and her crew had killed several of the natives who opposed the plunder of their plantations and the destruction of their trees. Of course the natives were ready to revenge themselves on the first foreign ship that came there, and this happened to be the one carrying the missionaries.

"In 1871," continued the Doctor, "the death of Bishop Patteson occurred on the island of Nukapu in much the same way. The bishop was widely known and esteemed for his devotion to missionary work in Polynesia, and was greatly beloved by the natives on all the islands he had visited. Shortly before his visit to Nukapu a labor-vessel had been there, and carried off many of the natives against their will. While the natives were thirsting for revenge the bishop arrived, and, not knowing him, they put him to death, as the natives of Erromanga had killed Mr. Williams more than thirty years before."

"Please tell us something about the labor-vessels and the labor-trade," said Frank. "I have read about them, and we heard them mentioned in Tahiti and Honolulu, and would like to know more about them."

"It is quite a long story," was the reply, "but I'll try to give it to you briefly. You remember that in the Hawaiian and Society islands it was necessary to import foreign labor for the plantations, the natives being too indolent, or not sufficiently numerous, for the wants of the planters. Well, the same state of affairs prevailed, and still prevails, in the Samoa, Feejee, Tonga, and other groups, where cotton and sugar plantations have been established, and also in Queensland, in Australia.

NATIVE HOUSES AND CANOE.

"Well, the demand naturally led to an effort to supply the want. Labor-vessels went among the islands and groups farther to the west, especially among the Solomon and New Hebrides islands, to hire men to work on the plantations where they were needed.

"Nearly all of these vessels were English, either from the ports of Australia or hailing from Feejee, Samoa, or Tahiti. Occasionally an American captain went into the labor traffic, and there was now and then a French or German vessel engaged in it.

"The theory of the business was that men were hired on regular contracts to work for a period of years (from three to five years) on designated plantations, for certain stipulated wages, and at the end of the contract they were to be returned to their homes free of expense to themselves. Every man was to understand perfectly what was required of him, and nobody was to be taken except of his own free-will.

"This was the theory and the practice at the outset, but very soon the practice became far otherwise. Some men were hired on the above plan, more were hired from their chiefs without being consulted as to their own willingness in the matter, and a still greater number were kidnapped and sold into slavery."

"Sold into slavery?"

"Yes, exactly that. They were decoyed on board the labor-ships, and when a sufficient number were there they were bound hand and foot, flung into the hold, and the ship sailed away with them. They were delivered over to the planters at so much a head, and very few of them ever found their way back again to their homes."

"Why, that's just like what we used to read about the African slave-trade," said Fred, who had been listening with open-eyed astonishment.

"Quite so," the Doctor answered. "It was the revival of the African slave-trade, and was carried on under the British flag. And many of the men were taken into slavery on British soil as they were turned over to the planters of Queensland, a British colony.

"The matter became so notorious that the attention of the British Government was called to it, and measures were taken to put an end to the outrages. Ships of war were sent to the South Pacific to suppress the illegal trade, and stringent laws were passed to prevent further outrages. At present every labor-vessel must be licensed for her business, and carry an official who superintends the making of contracts, and makes sure that every laborer signs the agreement with his own free-will, and with a full understanding of the terms of the document. Care is taken with regard to the food and treatment of the men while on shipboard, and also when at work on the plantations."

Frank asked what were the means resorted to to obtain men before the Government took these precautions.

MISSIONARY STATION ON ANEITYUM ISLAND.

"As to that," was the reply, "the tricks and devices were various. The usual plan was for a ship to anchor near an island, and of course she was soon surrounded by the natives in their canoes, ready to barter cocoanuts and other produce for what the white men had to sell. The men were enticed on board, and when a sufficient number was on the deck a signal was given by the captain, and the sailors would knock the victims down as rapidly as possible. Some escaped by jumping overboard, but the rest were secured, and the ship then proceeded to another island to repeat the process until her cargo was complete. Then, with her hold packed like that of an African slave-ship fifty years ago, she steered for Feejee or for Queensland, and the captain and crew made a handsome profit for their work.

TANNA ISLANDER ON A QUEENSLAND PLANTATION.

"After a time the natives became too wary to be enticed on board in the ordinary way, and then other plans were tried. The Southern Cross, the mission ship used by Bishop Patteson, was painted white, and the natives were familiar with its appearance. Accordingly the slavers adopted the following plan to obtain their living cargoes:

"About the time the bishop was making his rounds a white vessel appeared and anchored near an island. A boat put off for the shore, and in its stern sat a black-coated individual with a white neck-tie, green glasses, a book under his arm which would readily pass for a Bible, and an umbrella over his head. The cry went around that the bishop had come, and the natives flocked to the beach to welcome him.

"Instead of the bishop it was a strange missionary, who spoke enough of the language to make himself understood. He told them that the bishop had had a fall the day before and broke his leg, and therefore could not come on shore. He must hurry away to Sydney to see a doctor, and could only stay a little while at the island, but he wanted to see his friends on board, and would like some yams and fruit.

"In the course of an hour or so fifty or more canoes are flying over the water laden with presents for the good bishop. The fruit is passed on board, the men follow and are admitted two or three at a time, to descend into the bishop's cabin.

GROUP OF ISLANDERS ON A FEEJEEAN PLANTATION.

"At the foot of the cabin-stairs they are met by half a dozen sailors, who put pistols to their heads, threaten to kill them if they make the least outcry, tie their hands, and pass them along into the hold through a hole which has been cut from the cabin for that purpose. When a batch has been thus disposed of another is allowed to descend, and in a little while the hold is full; fifty or more natives have been made prisoners, and meantime the strange missionary has returned from shore, the canoes are cut adrift or sunk by dropping pieces of iron into them, and the pretended missionary ship sails away with a cargo of slaves for the Queensland or Feejee market."

"And was this really done by Englishmen?" one of the youths asked.

"Yes, not only once, but several times," the Doctor answered; "and of the men thus stolen from their homes very few ever found their way back again. If you wish more information on this point, read 'Kidnapping in the South Seas,' by Captain Palmer, and 'The Cruise of the Rosario,' by Captain Markham, both of the Royal Navy. These gentlemen were sent to cruise in Polynesian waters to suppress the slave-trade; and though they made several captures, they did not find themselves supported by the colonial courts. 'In two glaring instances,' says Captain Markham, 'when slavers were seized and sent to Sydney for adjudication they were acquitted, and their captors were themselves condemned in heavy damages for detention and injury done to those vessels.'

FIRING DOWN THE HATCHWAY.

"A notorious case," continued the Doctor, "was that of the slaver Carl, which has figured prominently in the newspapers and official documents. This vessel left Melbourne in June, 1871, for a cruise among the South Sea Islands, with the object of procuring laborers. Dr. James Patrick Murray was on board as a passenger and part owner of the vessel, which was commanded by Joseph Armstrong. They tried to obtain laborers at the New Hebrides Islands by legitimate methods but failed, and then they resorted unsuccessfully to the 'missionary trick.'

"After this the party captured the natives by upsetting or destroying their canoes. According to Dr. Murray's account, given on the trial of Armstrong and one of the crew, the captain and crew used to smash the canoes by dropping pig-iron or stones into them, and the passengers in their own boat picked the natives out of the water, sometimes stunning them with clubs or slung-shot if they were troublesome.

THE "ROSARIO" CHASING A MAN-STEALING SCHOONER.

"In this way they collected about eighty natives, keeping them in the hold at night, and allowing them to come on deck during the day. One night there was a disturbance in the hold, and the natives tore down the bunks, or sleeping-places, and with the materials thus obtained they attacked the main hatchway.

"An attempt was made to pacify them but it failed, and then the crew began firing down the hatchway. The firing lasted about eight hours, being kept up during the night, one of the men occasionally throwing lights into the hold in order to enable the others to direct their aim. At daylight all appeared to be quiet, and so the hatches were opened and those who were alive were invited to come up. About five came up without help; there were eight or nine seriously wounded, sixteen badly wounded, and about fifty dead. The dead and the sixteen badly wounded were immediately thrown overboard; the ship was out of sight of land at the time, and therefore it was impossible that any of the wounded could have reached the shore.

"The blood was removed from the hold, all traces of the affair were effaced, and when the Carl was overhauled by the Rosario shortly afterwards there was nothing suspicious in her appearance, and she was allowed to proceed on her voyage.

A WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.

"The captain and one of the crew were condemned to death, but the sentence was afterwards commuted to imprisonment. Murray was allowed to be one of the witnesses for the prosecution, and so escaped punishment. Others of the party on board said Murray was the ringleader in the whole business, and that he sang 'Marching through Georgia' while firing at the poor natives in the hold. They further said that he selected those who were the least wounded when the remainder were thrown overboard, and he used to read prayers to the crew and then give the order to go and smash the canoes of the natives."[4]

"And all this happened in 1871," said Frank, "and was done by Englishmen and under the English flag!"

"Yes," replied the Doctor; "and until the outrages became so notorious that the attention of the civilized world was drawn towards them, many official Englishmen in the British colonies were very lukewarm on the subject, and evidently did not wish to impede the progress of the cotton and sugar industries by interfering with the business of procuring laborers. Let me give an instance of this:

"Captain Palmer, the predecessor of Captain Markham in command of the Rosario, seized the schooner Daphne, of forty-eight tons burden, fitted up exactly like an African slaver, and with one hundred natives on board. They were entirely naked, had not even mats to sleep on, and the hold of the schooner resembled a pigpen more than anything else.

"The Daphne had a license to carry fifty native 'passengers,' but it made no mention of Feejee, where she was seized, and whither she had taken her cargo for sale. The natives were landed at Levuka, Feejee, and placed under the care of the British consul, and the Daphne was sent to Sydney for adjudication. The Chief-justice of New South Wales, Sir Alfred Stephen, decided in the Daphne's favor in the following words, which I will read from Captain Palmer's Book, 'Kidnapping in the South Seas:'

"'.... It will not be enough to show that artifice has been used, or even falsehood told, to induce the natives to enter into the agreements or contracts mentioned, if they really did enter into the contracts.

"'The morality of the proceeding cannot be taken into consideration in determining the question raised here. The captor will have substantially to prove that the natives were going to be passed into a state of real slavery by those who had taken them on board the Daphne, or were to be put into a state really amounting to slavery, and in violation of the agreement and against their will.'

"The Daphne was released, and Captain Palmer was compelled to pay the expenses of the trial, amounting to nearly $900. This money was afterwards refunded to him by Her Majesty's Government, which approved his action in seizing the schooner and placed his name on the list for promotion."

"How do the colonies obtain their laborers at present?" Fred asked.

INDIAN GIRL HOUSE-SERVANT IN FEEJEE.

"They get them from the islands in legitimate ways, as I before told you, and they also import Chinese and Indian coolies. The supply of Polynesian labor is not equal to the demand, and in the last few years, especially in Feejee, there has been a large importation of coolies from India. We will learn something about them when we visit the Feejee Islands."

[CHAPTER VI.]

THE SAMOAN ISLANDS.—APIA.—ITS POSITION AND PECULIARITIES.—BEACH-COMBERS.—HISTORY AND ADVENTURES OF SOME OF THEM.—CHARLEY SAVAGE.—SAMOAN POLITICS.—ATTEMPT TO POISON MISSIONARIES.—FRENCH CONVENT AND SCHOOLS.—COMMERCE WITH SAMOA.—VISITING A NATIVE VILLAGE.—GAMES OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE.—YOUTHS THROWING SPEARS.—MISSION COLLEGE AT MALUA.—HOW THE STUDENTS LIVE.—PANGO-PANGO.—ADMIRAL WILKES'S DESCRIPTION.—ATTENDING A SAMOAN PICNIC.—DIFFERENCES OF TASTE.—MASSACRE BAY.—LA PÉROUSE.—HOW HIS FATE WAS DISCOVERED.—THE SWORD-HILT AT TUCOPIA.—LOSS OF THE BOUSSOLE AND ASTROLABE.—VANIKORO ISLAND.

The Pera reached the Samoan Islands without mishap, and anchored in the harbor of Apia. The Samoan group is also known on charts and maps as the Navigator's Islands; the former name is the native one, while the latter was bestowed by Bougainville in 1768, who called the group Archipel des Navigateurs, in consequence of the skill displayed by the natives in managing their canoes. There are nine inhabited islands in the group, with an area of about 1125 square miles and a population of something less than forty thousand.

SAMOAN DOUBLE CANOE.

In general effect our friends found the scenery of Samoa not unlike that of Tahiti, though the detail was materially different. The harbor of Apia is an excellent one, affording secure anchorage and safety from all winds; the captain of the yacht told Frank that there was a finer harbor at Pango-Pango, in another island, but Apia was the most important commercially. The trading company that succeeded the German house of Godefroy & Sons, after the latter's failure, has a large establishment at Apia, and controls a great part of the business of the islands. The ship-yard of the company was pointed out, and it needed only a glance to show that it was extensive and well equipped.

CORAL ARCHITECTS IN SAMOAN WATERS.

Apia consists of a long and rather straggling village, stretched along the shore of a crescent-shaped bay; like most of these South Sea island ports, it is concealed by the cocoa palms and other trees peculiar to the tropics, and many of the houses are so well covered by the verdure that the visitor cannot make out their position until he is close upon them.

Back of the town, which contains two or three hundred stores and residences, the horizon is filled with richly green hills, which rise one upon the other to a height of nearly five thousand feet. Streams come trickling down from these hills, and there is one water-fall visible from the harbor large enough to make a well-defined stipple of white against the rich green of the mountains that surround it. Frank and Fred immediately suggested a walk to the water-fall, but their enthusiasm was checked by Doctor Bronson, who thought there would be enough in Apia to amuse them at least for that day.

Hardly was the anchor fixed in the mud before a boat was lowered and the Pera's party went on shore. Doctor Bronson and the youths proceeded to the American consulate, while Colonel Bush and Doctor Macalister went to call upon the representative of their country. After the official formalities were over they strolled about the town, and in a short time Frank and Fred had familiarized themselves with a considerable amount of the history of Samoa, as we have ascertained by a perusal of their journals.

A BEACH-COMBER.

"Apia isn't much of a place," said Frank, "but what it lacks in numbers it makes up in variety. Among the residents there are Americans, Englishmen, Germans, French, and several other nationalities, the Germans being most numerous and controlling the best of the trade. Then there is a fair sprinkling of men whose nationality is open to question, and whom any respectable country would not be anxious to claim. Samoa is at present the favorite resort of the beach-comber; perhaps you don't know what a beach-comber is.

"All through the islands of the Pacific there are men whose history is shrouded in obscurity, and who are unwilling to tell the truth about themselves, for the simple reason that the truth would be inconvenient. They are deserters from ships, runaways from home—perhaps in consequence of crimes for which the law would like to lay hands on them—outcasts from decent society or society of any kind, and not at all particular as to how they make a living. They were more numerous fifty years ago than at present, but there is still a sufficient number of them for all practical wants of the country. In the days when England sent its criminal classes to Australia, the South Sea Islands were filled with escaped convicts and ticket-of-leave men; but that source of supply no longer abounds, and thereby hangs a tale which may as well be told here as anywhere else.

GROWTH OF CORAL ON A MOUNTAIN SLOWLY SUBSIDING.

"The first white settlers of the Feejee Islands was a band of twenty-seven convicts, who escaped from imprisonment in New South Wales, in 1804, on a small schooner which they had captured. They landed in Feejee with a few muskets, and in their encounters with the natives their weapons made them all-powerful. The natives regarded the muskets as something supernatural, and if the white men had conducted themselves with intelligence they could have obtained mastery over the whole population with very little trouble. The natives were ready to acknowledge them as rulers, and did in fact exalt several of them to the position of chiefs. But the fellows quarrelled with the natives and among themselves, and when Commodore Wilkes touched at the Feejees, in 1840, only two of them were alive.

"These wandering or stationary vagabonds are the men who are called beach-combers in the parlance of the South Pacific. They are not fond of law and order, and whenever an island group goes under the control of any European power the beach-combers are very likely to leave and take up their abode on islands where the natives are still independent. When the French occupied Tahiti many beach-combers there fled to Feejee, and when Feejee became an English colony they departed for Samoa. Samoa is still under the rule of its own kings, or rather under their misrule, but the probabilities are that it will soon be in the hands of the Germans. When this happens you may expect an emigration of beach-combers to the islands, if any remain, where there will be no legal restraints.

ASS'S EARS, FLORIDA ISLAND.

"The stories of many of these fellows is full of the most startling incidents, even after making a very liberal deduction for what their imaginations have added to the facts as they occurred. One of them tells how, when he landed in Feejee, he was condemned to be baked and served up at a feast; the oven was being heated for his reception when the chief concluded to keep his prize a while longer until he could be fattened. The man was released, but he ate sparingly of the food that was given him, and at the same time ingratiated himself with the natives, particularly with the chief, by showing him how to make war successfully upon his enemies. The result was he was saved from baking, became a man of importance, had fifty wives, and a goodly number of slaves.

"Another beach-comber named Charley Savage became a man of great importance, and received the honors that were given to the most exalted chiefs. He assisted his tribe in making war, and was nearly always successful. One day, however, his fortune deserted him, as he was killed in a fight, and his body fell into the hands of his enemies. They cooked and devoured him, and made his bones into sail needles, which were distributed among the people in token of the event, and as a remembrance of the victory in which he was slain.

"It must not be supposed from this reference to cannibalism that the Samoans practised it. They seem never to have been addicted to devouring their enemies or anybody else, and in other respects were superior to their neighbors.

A HOUSE IN THE TONGA ISLANDS.

"Like nearly all these island groups, Samoa has been, from time immemorial, the scene of almost constant warfare between the tribes inhabiting the different islands. There are generally two or three claimants to the throne of Samoa, and the foreign consuls are kept pretty busy adjusting difficulties growing out of the local wars, and involving the destruction of foreign property. On two occasions the protectorate of the islands has been offered to the United States, but it has been declined with thanks. It has also been offered to England, but thus far has not been accepted, and the indications, at the time of this writing, are that Samoa will be a German colony before many months.[5]

"The Samoans have been divided into two great factions, and it has never been possible for them to come to an agreement that could be kept for any length of time. Their quarrels have been aided by the scoundrelly white men just mentioned, and our consul says that if all these bad fellows could be driven out there might be a chance for peace.

"It was these beach-combers that in the early days of the labors of the missionaries greatly hindered their work, and in several instances directly caused their deaths. As an illustration I may mention the death of the first three English missionaries who went to the Tonga Islands. There was an escaped English convict living there who persuaded the King that these men were wizards, and that an epidemic which was then raging had been caused by them. The King accordingly murdered the good men at the bidding of the scoundrel.

"When the first missionaries settled in Pango-Pango, in Samoa, some twelve or fifteen of these beach-combers were living there. These rascals were so bitterly opposed to the missionaries that they tried to drive them away, and failing in this laid a plot to poison them. The story is thus told by Rev. Mr. Murray in his book, 'Forty Years of Mission Work in Polynesia:'

"'The plot was wellnigh carried into execution. The opportunity was to be embraced when the teakettle was on the fire. Cooking and boiling of water are carried on in open sheds on the islands. The time fixed upon for carrying the plan into effect was service afternoon. The lad who attended to the boiling of the water was accustomed to fill the kettle and put it upon the fire before going to the service. Hence there was afforded the opportunity which our enemies sought. We had all gone to the service, and there was no human eye to watch their movements. The appointed afternoon happened to be windy, and while the man who had undertaken to carry the plot into effect was in the act of doing the deed, another, who had been smitten with remorse, struck his arm and scattered the poison; they had no means of obtaining more, and so the attempt failed. The man who was instrumental in saving our lives remained on the island several years acting as pilot to vessels entering Pango-Pango harbor, and in 1841 he left in our missionary brig Camden. It was not from himself that we learned our obligations but from another white man who lived on the island at the time of the plot, and knew of it though he had no hand in it. The occurrence led to the breaking up and scattering of the party of would-be murderers, as they feared the arrival of a man-of-war, and they could no longer trust one another.'

"The Samoans are a handsome people," continued Frank in his journal, "of a deep bronze or copper color, and graceful figures. Some of them have adopted foreign garments; but a good proportion adhere to the native dress, which consists of fine mats or thick handsome tappa, made from the fibre of the mulberry or bread-fruit tree. Their tappa is thicker than that of the Marquesas, but unfortunately the manufacture of it is diminishing year by year, and in a little while no more will be made. Foreign calicoes are taking its place, just as in Tahiti and the Marquesas. Of course the foreigners wish a market for the goods they have to sell, and therefore they encourage the wearing of garments or materials of European make.

"The most lightly clad Samoans were those that came out in boats when we lay at anchor and wanted to dive for money. They are excellent swimmers and divers, and when a piece of silver is thrown into the water they are after it instantly, and catch it before it reaches the bottom. The best of the divers was a girl who appeared to be about fifteen years old; when she caught a coin she held it between her teeth till she rose to the surface, and after taking breath for half a minute or so was ready for another dive. The performance was exactly like what we saw at Singapore, Malta, and other ports, where there are always plenty of natives ready to dive for the coins that passengers throw over for them. The water is perfectly clear, and though it is fully a hundred feet deep, every object on the bottom can be seen.

NATIVE TEACHER, UPOLU, SAMOAN ISLANDS.

"In our stroll about Apia we passed the convent where four French Sisters and as many Samoan ones have charge of the education of some sixty or more native girls, many of them the daughters of chiefs or belonging to the high caste families. As we passed the convent the girls were singing very sweetly, and we paused to listen; it was easy to imagine that we were passing a school in Rouen or Dijon, so much was the singing like what one hears in France. The French Sisters are said to be very much devoted to their work, and as the Samoans are fond of music they readily receive instruction in singing. The girls are taught in all the branches customary in schools of this sort in other parts of the world; sewing and other home duties are not neglected, and when the pupils leave the school they are in a position to do a great deal of good among their less accomplished sisters.

"There is a similar school for boys, under the charge of French priests, and there are Protestant schools in every village. The Catholics have made greater progress here than in any other of the island groups; they have between three and four thousand adherents, and among their converts are some of the most influential men of the islands. The representatives of the London Missionary Society claim about twenty-five thousand followers, and the Methodists something more than five thousand, the latter having come into the field much later than did the London society. Nearly all the adult population can read and write, and there is scarcely a child ten years old that cannot read its own language.

"There are groves of cocoanut-trees everywhere, and we were not surprised to learn that the principal product of the islands is from the cocoa-tree. Ten thousand tons of copra are shipped every year to the markets of Europe, where the oil is extracted, and there is besides a large production of cocoanut-oil in Samoa, which some have estimated as high as two thousand tons. The Germans have extensive cotton plantations, and there are smaller plantations belonging to English and American companies and individuals; coffee and sugar are cultivated, but the culture of these articles has not thus far been very extensive.

"As at Tahiti and in the other islands, it has been necessary to import laborers from elsewhere to work the plantations, as the Samoans are not fond of exerting themselves any more than are those of the Society group. Thus far most of the laborers have been imported by the Germans, and they come from all the islands where the German vessels trade. The Polynesian Land Company and the American Land Company have also made some importations of the same sort, but up to the present time they have not equalled the Germans.

"While walking in the outskirts of the town we were thirsty, and asked the native boy who accompanied us where we could find some water to drink. He immediately suggested cocoanut-milk, and on our acquiescing he hailed a boy who was lounging under a cocoanut-tree close by, and said something to him in Samoan.

"Immediately the second boy took a small piece of rope which had been twisted out of cocoa fibre, and prepared to ascend one of the trees. By means of this rope and his hands and feet he went up about as quickly as we could have ascended a staircase of the same height, and threw down several nuts, with which we quenched our thirst. Any one who has been in the tropics knows how refreshing is the milk of the green cocoanut when he is weary and thirsty.

CRABS EATING COCOANUTS.

"We saw some crabs feeding on cocoanuts, which are about the last thing in the world you would suppose a crab could eat. Perhaps you'll laugh and be incredulous, but they really do eat cocoanuts, and get the meat out without any assistance. Cocoanuts are their principal food, but they do not refuse other fruits, such as figs, candle-nuts, and nutmegs. This is the way they do it:

"The crab climbs a tree and pushes down a ripe cocoanut, which is easily detached, and he shows a great deal of sagacity in selecting only the ripe nuts. Then he comes down to the ground and tears the husk from the nut, and he always begins at the end where the eye-holes are. If the tree is a sloping one, and there are rocks underneath, he climbs up again, carrying the nut with him, and drops it on a rock, where it will be broken. If the situation is not favorable for this performance, he digs into the eye-holes until he makes an entrance sufficiently large to admit his pincers, with which he withdraws the meat.

A PLANTATION IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

"These land-crabs are excellent eating, though they are rather too oily for a delicate stomach. They live in large holes, which they dig themselves and line with the fibre torn from the cocoanut shell. They grow to a great size, and sometimes a single crab will yield a quart of oil. They are distinctively land-crabs, and the natives say they only use the sea to bathe in. We asked our guide if all crabs in Samoa are good to eat, and he answered that all land-crabs were, but the sea ones were doubtful, some of them being poisonous at certain seasons of the year.

A FAIR WIND.

"We went into some of the native houses, and found them neat and clean. The roofs of the houses are very high, and supported on low posts; Fred said there was a great deal of roof and very little wall, and this exactly describes a Samoan house. The roof is thatched with palm-leaves, and when well and properly laid will exclude the heaviest rains. The houses have no doors, mats being suspended at the entrance; the result is, the dogs and chickens may walk in when they choose, though in many houses the chickens are not allowed to enter.

"It is the custom to place screens of plaited palm-leaves around the houses at night, but they are always removed at daylight. In the interior of the houses screens of cloth are suspended from the roof to divide the space into rooms where the inmates sleep. The couches are piles of fine mats of cocoa fibre, and the pillows are simply sticks of bamboo or other wood, on which the neck, not the head, is rested. It is about as uncomfortable as the Japanese pillow, which it closely resembles, and is no doubt the cause of the early-rising habits of the natives.

"All the cooking is done out-of-doors, and there is very little inside the houses that can be called furniture. In one house we found a group of young people playing a game which was something like our game of forfeits. They sat in a circle and spun a cocoanut around on its sharp end; when it fell the person towards whom the three black eyes pointed was adjudged the loser. When they are to decide which of them is to do anything, leaving the others free, the lottery of the cocoanut is used to determine the matter.

"Warfare being more prevalent here in later years than in the Society group, we found the games of the young men much more vigorous than at Tahiti. We saw a party of boys playing at totoga, or reed-throwing; they had reeds five or six feet long, with points of hard wood, and the skill of the game consisted in making the reeds skim as far as possible along the grass.

"In another spot some young men were throwing spears at the stumps of trees, and in this game the skill consisted in a youth's ability to force out the spear of some one else while fixing his own in the stump. They have several games in which spears and clubs are used, and sometimes they are accompanied by a good deal of risk. Spears are thrown so as to hit the ground and then glide upward to the mark, and sometimes a man stands up armed with only a club and allows half a dozen others to throw their spears at him in rapid succession. By a dexterous handling of his club he turns the spears aside, but it is evident that the slightest mistake may have serious consequences.

"When we came back to the landing-place we thought we would take a ride in a native boat instead of calling away the boat of the yacht. So we hired an outrigger canoe, and were quickly paddled to the side of the Pera. These boats are not by any means new to us, as we have seen them in Ceylon, the Malay Archipelago, and other parts of the world. The Samoans handle them with a great deal of skill, and I do not wonder that Bougainville recognized their ability by calling this group the 'Navigator's Islands.'

BREAD-FRUIT.

"I forgot to say," added Frank, "that we saw several cases of elephantiasis, which the natives call fé-fé, and is said to be quite common in all the islands of the group. The arms and legs of the victims are swollen to a great size, but, happily for them, the disease is not attended with pain. The cause of fé-fé is as unknown as is that of goitre in Switzerland."

Apia is on the north side of Upolu Island, which is the most important and the most populous of the group. It has an area of about three hundred and thirty-five square miles, and a population of not far from fifteen thousand, or more than one-third the entire number of inhabitants of Samoa. In the middle of the island is a chain of broken hills sloping towards the sea, and these hills up to their very tops are green with verdure. The harbor of Apia is sheltered by a natural breakwater; but, though the principal seat of commerce, it is not considered as fine as that of Pango-Pango, on Tutuila Island, whither our friends proceeded when their inspection of Upolu was completed.

The day after their arrival at Apia they made an excursion to Malua, about twelve miles distant, to see the college of the London Mission, which is located at that point. Of this journey Fred wrote as follows:

"We hired a boat with six strong natives to row it, but they didn't have much to do, as the wind favored us both ways, and the greater part of the distance we were under sail. The journey seemed a very short one, as we were busy studying the scenery, which is very pretty and changed every few minutes as the valleys opened to our gaze and revealed their wonderful richness of tropical productions. We kept a sharp watch for the college buildings, but didn't see them until we were quite close to the village.

"The fact is the college is not a huge edifice such as you find in Europe or America, but a collection of fifty or sixty one-story cottages, which are built around a large square, with a hall or class-room at one side. In another respect it is unlike a college in civilized countries, as each student is generally accompanied by his wife and family; we were told that married men were preferred to single ones, as the wife and children could be educated at the same time that the student pursued his studies, and they are useful afterwards in instructing the women and children in the places to which they are assigned.

"Every cottage has a garden attached to it, which the student is required to cultivate sufficiently to support his family. Any surplus stock he raises is sold and placed to his credit, and nearly all the students feed and clothe their families out of the proceeds of the garden. The college was founded in 1844 by Doctor G. A. Turner; it has educated more than two thousand teachers and preachers, and in consequence of the system I have just mentioned is almost self supporting. There are several thousand cocoanut, bread-fruit, and other life-supporting trees on the grounds, while the gardens are devoted to taro, yams, bananas, and similar plants. Here, as elsewhere in the South Pacific, the banana-plant is very productive, and requires comparatively little labor to take care of it.

"The rules of the institution are very strict, and any student who repeatedly disobeys them is requested to make way for some one who will not. The bell rings at daylight for morning prayers, after which the students go to work in their gardens or at their trades, or fish in the lagoon in front of the settlement. At eight o'clock the bell rings again for bath and breakfast, and at nine it summons the classes for recitation and instruction, which continue until four in the afternoon. Then more work till sunset, when the bell calls to family prayer. After this the students study by themselves till nine o'clock, when the bell tells them to extinguish their lights and go to bed.

WAR CANOE OF THE OLDEN TIME.

"The majority of the students are Samoans; the rest are from all the islands of the South Pacific, whence they have been sent by the local missionaries. They study arithmetic, geography, and of course learn to read and write, and besides these ordinary branches of education they devote considerable time to the Scriptures and to theology.

"Every Saturday evening there is a prayer-meeting, at which the students make short exhortations. On Sunday there are three services—morning, afternoon, and evening; and there are Sunday-schools for the children and Bible classes for the older folks. On the first Sunday of each month there is a communion-service, after the manner of churches in England and other civilized lands. We have not seen anywhere in the Pacific a finer assemblage of native men and women than the class at this college; they had bright, intelligent faces, and we were told that they were all so anxious to progress in their studies that they rarely infringed any of the rules of the institution, the one most frequently violated being that which required them to stop studying at nine o'clock and go to bed.

CANOES DRAWN ON SHORE.

"It was getting quite dark when we returned to Apia and found our old quarters on the yacht. They wanted us to stay all night at the mission school; but there were so many of us that we thought it best to come back to Apia lest we might incommode our hosts by thrusting such a large number of visitors on them at once. You may be sure we slept soundly in our cabins, as we were all thoroughly tired out with the long but very interesting excursion."

After a few days at Apia the yacht proceeded to Pango-Pango, in Tutuila Island, a distance of about eighty miles. Under her steam-power she made the journey in a single day; had she relied on her sails it would have been far different, as Tutuila lies dead to windward of Upolu, and there are several currents which add their force to make a passage difficult. Sailing vessels are often five or six days making this trip, which can be covered in a few hours by steam.

Our young friends thought they had never seen anywhere a more beautiful harbor than this; Frank sat down to describe it, and after writing a few lines said he would abandon the attempt, and fall back upon the account of Admiral Wilkes, who visited it in 1839. Accordingly he copied the following from the history of the famous expedition:

"The harbor of Pango-Pango is one of the most singular in all the Polynesian isles. It is the last point at which one would look for a shelter; the coast near it is peculiarly rugged, and has no appearance of indentations, and the entrance being narrow, is not easily observed. Its shape has been compared to a variety of articles; that which it most nearly resembles is a retort. It is surrounded on all sides by inaccessible mural precipices, from eight hundred to one thousand feet in height. The lower part of these rocks is bare, but they are clothed above with luxuriant vegetation. So impassable did the rocky barrier appear in all but two places, that the harbor was likened to the valley of 'Rasselas 'changed to a lake. The harbor is of easy access, and its entrance, which is about a third of a mile in width, is marked by the Tower Rock and the Devil's Point."

CAPTAIN JAMES COOK.

"He might have added," said Frank, "that there is a coral reef on each side of the entrance, with the surf breaking heavily over it, or at any rate it was doing so at the time we entered. Pango-Pango is a splendid harbor, and could hold a great many ships. Its principal disadvantage is that the prevailing trade-wind blows directly into it, so that while a sailing-ship can get in without much trouble she has a hard time to get out unless she has a steam tow-boat to help her."

Doctor Bronson told the youths that at one time the King of Samoa proposed to present the harbor of Pango-Pango, and an area of land surrounding it, to the United States Government for a coaling and naval station; but as the acceptance of the proposal would involve political relations that might be troublesome in future, the offer was practically declined. The commerce of Pango-Pango is not as important as that of Apia, for the very simple reason that the island of Tutuila contains only four thousand inhabitants, and their productive energies are not great. Copra and cocoanut-oil are the principal articles of export; there are some small plantations devoted to cotton, sugar, or coffee, but the lack of native laborers and the high cost of imported ones has kept these industries in a backward state.

AN AMERICAN RESIDENT.

The first European vessel to enter this harbor was the Elizabeth, an English whaler, commanded by Captain Cuthbert. He gave it the name of Cuthbert Harbor, but the appellation never adhered to it. Pango-Pango is its native name, and will probably be maintained long after Cuthbert is quite forgotten.

The settlement at Pango-Pango was so much like the one at Apia that we will not risk wearying the reader with a description. Suffice it to say the yacht remained two or three days there, and then proceeded on her voyage in the direction of the Feejee Islands.

Before their departure they were invited to attend a Fa-Samoa party, and the invitation was promptly accepted. Frank asked what a Fa-Samoa party was.

"You might put it in French," said the American consul, by whom the invitation was given, "and say a la Samoa, or, to come to plain English, you may render it 'Samoan fashion.' 'Fa-Samoa,' 'Fa-Feejee,' or 'Fa-Tonga,' mean after the manner of Samoa, Feejee, or Tonga. It is a convenient feature of the language, and I can assure you the party will be an enjoyable one."

"The consul was right," said Frank, in telling their experience, "as the party was a jolly one. It reminded us of the dinner at Tahiti after the native style, but was more like a picnic than anything else we have at home. In fact it was a good deal of a picnic, as each person who was invited contributed something to the supply of eatables for the table, so that those who did not fancy the native dishes need not go hungry.

CAVE NEAR THE PICNIC GROUND.

"The picnic ground was just outside the town, on a pretty bit of lawn shaded by grand old bread-fruit and cocoanut trees, and in the midst of a grove of bananas, which extended on three sides of the lawn and served as a sort of hedge. Banana-leaves were spread thickly on the grass, and on this lowly table the edible things were spread, and what do you suppose we had to eat?

"We had sucking-pigs roasted very much as they are roasted at home, or folded in taro-leaves and baked in hot ashes; the steam from the green leaves cooks them thoroughly, so that the joints fall apart at the merest touch of the knife, or a slight strain of the fingers. They gave us pigeons cooked the same way, and I remark, by-the-way, that there are pigeons in the Samoan Islands, and it is one of the native pastimes to catch them. We had several kinds of scale-fish, some cooked and others raw, and we had crawfish and prawns and Samoan oysters; but I'm bound to say I didn't think much of the oysters when I remembered those of my native land. They give us a salad made of the young and tender shoots of the cocoa-tree, and very nice it was, and everywhere we turned there were bananas, oranges, pineapples, and other tropical fruits.

"The dishes that most attracted our attention were the puddings made of bananas, bread-fruit, taro, and similar things. The consul told us that each of the ingredients was beaten fine and baked separately, and then they were all worked in together and covered with the thick cream from a ripe cocoanut. Cocoanut-cream is wonderfully rich; when taken by itself it is apt to cloy the stomach and disturb digestion, but used as a sauce for the puddings it is delicious; but you must touch it sparingly, as it is full of oil.

"We sat on the ground to partake of the feast, and had a back-ache afterwards, just as we did in Tahiti. For drink we each had a freshly opened cocoanut-shell, and we took the cocoa-milk as we would take tea or any other beverage in civilized lands. There were some cakes made of putrid bread-fruit, but we did not touch them any more than we did the equally vile-smelling Limburger cheese which one of our entertainers had brought along. The bread-fruit is in season for about half the year; the natives store the fruit in pits lined with banana-leaves, and thus stored the stuff ferments, and soon smells so badly that any person with a sensitive nose cannot bear to come within odoriferous distance. When walking where there are any of these bread-fruit pits we always try to keep to windward.

"Taste and habit are everything. The Germans are nauseated by putrid bread-fruit, while the Samoans are equally intolerant of Limburger. They are horrified when told how long game is kept in England and America before being cooked and eaten, and the merest taste of Worcestershire sauce would spoil their appetites for a whole day at least."

MASSACRE BAY.

The course of the yacht carried her near Massacre Bay, and Fred naturally inquired why the spot was so called.

"It was so named," replied Doctor Bronson, "because of the massacre of several of the crew, together with the captain, of the Astrolabe, one of the ships of La Pérouse, the ill-fated navigator whose death was so long a mystery."

"What were the circumstances of the affair?" was the inquiry which followed this explanation.

"The ships of La Pérouse, the Boussole (compass) and Astrolabe (quadrant), were off the island, and Captain De Lange, who commanded the Astrolabe, sent four boats on shore to procure water. They carried sixty soldiers and sailors, and were commanded by De Lange in person. The boats made their way through the reef, and reached the beach without opposition. While the work of watering was going on the natives appeared friendly enough, until suddenly they gave a loud shout, and attacked the Frenchmen with stones and clubs. Captain De Lange was killed, and with him eleven of his men. The rest escaped to the ships, leaving one of their boats aground. La Pérouse endeavored to get inside the reef to punish the natives, but after several days he gave up the attempt and proceeded to Botany Bay, whence he sent an account of the affair to his government."

"And that was the last heard of him for a long time?"

"Yes; he sailed from Botany Bay with the Boussole and Astrolabe in March, 1788, and for thirty-eight years nothing was known of him or his ships, or what became of them."

"Did the French Government try to find out anything about their fate?"

"Oh, certainly. They sent an expedition to the South Seas, but it returned without the least information. Then they sent a circular to ambassadors, consuls, and other officials, at the courts of all the powers of the world, and to scientific societies and commercial associations, asking them in the name of humanity to search for any trace of the missing expedition, and offering to reward any one who rendered assistance to survivors, or gave any information about the fate of La Pérouse and his companions."

"And it took thirty-eight years to get the desired information?"

A VILLAGE IN VANIKORO.

"Yes. All inquiries of navigators and others came to nothing, and gradually the fate of La Pérouse was considered a problem impossible of solution. On the 13th of May, 1826, an English trading-ship from Calcutta, the St. Patrick, Captain Peter Dillon, touched at the island of Tucopia, in latitude 12° 21' south, longitude 168° 33' east. Find its position on the map, and then I'll tell what Captain Dillon discovered there."

Frank and Fred eagerly scanned the map, and by following the lines of latitude and longitude they speedily located Tucopia. It is between the Solomon and New Hebrides groups, and lies nearly due north-west from the Feejees, and a little north of west from Samoa.

"Captain Dillon," continued the Doctor, "found there a Frenchman named Martin Buchert, whom he had known at the Feejees thirteen years before, and also a Lascar sailor who had landed at Tucopia with Buchert. The meeting of Dillon and Buchert was an interesting one; and so much was Dillon absorbed with it, that he did not at first notice a silver sword-hilt which the Lascar wore suspended by a string around his neck. While he was talking with Buchert, the Lascar sold the sword-hilt to the ship's armorer for a few fish-hooks. The natives that swarmed around the ship had many articles of European manufacture, and questions concerning them led to a remark about the sword-hilt, which was speedily obtained again from the armorer.

"Captain Dillon learned that the things were brought from an island called Vanikoro, about two days' sail to leeward of Tucopia, and that the natives there had many articles of European manufacture, which were obtained from two ships that had been wrecked there long before.

HAT ISLAND, WEST OF VANIKORO.

"Captain Dillon thought of La Pérouse, and of the reward which the French Government offered. Then he bought all the European articles which the natives of Tucopia possessed, and as soon as this was done he made sail for Vanikoro.

"When his ship was under way he carefully examined the sword-hilt with a magnifying-glass. There was a monogram so badly worn that the letters were indistinct, but he finally made it out 'J. F. G. P.'—the initials of the name Jean François Galaup de la Pérouse.

"He had found the hilt of the great navigator's sword!"

"And what did he find at Vanikoro?" said one of the youths, eagerly.

"Owing to contrary winds," the Doctor replied, "he was unable to visit the island at that time, and returned to Calcutta without doing so. He reported his discovery, and exhibited the sword-hilt and other relics; the East India Company fitted out a ship and placed it under his command, and he proceeded to Vanikoro, where he obtained a great many relics, including anchors, cannon, chains, and other heavy things, and learned from the natives the story of the wreck of the Boussole and Astrolabe."

"What was it?"

LOUIS XVI. AND LA PÉROUSE.

"The ships went ashore in a severe gale. On one of them every one of the crew was drowned in the surf or killed by the natives. On the other, supposed to be the one commanded by La Pérouse in person, friendly terms were established with the people, and the crew were unharmed. They built a small vessel from the wreck of the larger one, and a part of them sailed away. They were never heard of afterwards; those who remained on the island died one after another, and it is supposed that the last survivor perished only a few months before the sword-hilt was found at Tucopia."

"And what became of Captain Dillon?"

"The French Government kept its promise. It created him a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, gave him a life pension of four thousand francs, and appointed him consul to Tahiti, where he remained until the establishment of the protectorate over the Society Islands. Then he returned to England, and lived on his pension until his death in 1846."

[CHAPTER VII.]

THE FEEJEE ISLANDS: THEIR EXTENT AND POPULATION.—TERRIBLE FATALITY OF THE MEASLES.—ROTUMAH AND ITS PEOPLE.—KANDAVU AND SUVA.—VITI LEVU.—SIGHTS OF THE CAPITAL.—PRODUCTIONS AND COMMERCE OF FEEJEE.—GROWTH OF THE SUGAR TRADE.—THE LABOR QUESTION.—OBSERVATIONS AMONG THE NATIVES.—FEEJEEAN HAIR-DRESSING.—NATIVE PECULIARITIES.—CANNIBALISM, ITS EXTENT AND SUPPRESSION.—HOW THE CHIEFS WERE SUPPLIED.—A WHOLE TRIBE OF PEOPLE EATEN.—LEVUKA.—INTERVIEWS WITH MERCHANTS AND PLANTERS.—THE BOLOLO FESTIVAL.—ANCIENT CUSTOMS.

A NATIVE OF FEEJEE.

During the voyage to the Feejees Frank and Fred informed themselves concerning that famous group of islands, which formerly had a dark reputation for being the scene of the grossest forms of cannibalism. What they learned was substantially as follows:

"There is really no such group of islands as 'The Feejees;' the word Feejee comes from Viti, or Vee-tee—Viti Levu being the largest island of the group, which consists of something more than two hundred islands and islets. The number is variously placed at from two hundred to two hundred and fifty, and of these about one hundred and forty are inhabited. Viti Levu measures about ninety-seven miles from east to west and sixty-four from north to south, and its area is computed at 4112 square miles. Vanua-Levu, with an area of nearly 2500 miles, is the next largest, and then come Taviuni and Kandavu, the former of 217 square miles, and the latter of 124. None of the other islands have areas equalling one hundred square miles, and it would be tedious to name them all.

"Altogether the Feejee group has an area estimated at 7400 square miles, or about 400 square miles less than that of the State of Massachusetts. Its population is estimated at—"

Fred was about to write 200,000, taking the figures from a book before him, when he was interrupted by Doctor Bronson.

"Wait a moment," said the Doctor, "and I'll tell you something on that subject.

A ROYAL ATTENDANT.

"Twenty or twenty-five years ago," he continued, "the population was estimated at fully that figure, and some authorities put it as high as 250,000. Of course there has never been a careful census, and in the interior of the larger islands it is not easy to get even a close approximation of the number of inhabitants. Since the occupation of the islands by the whites the population has followed the general law of all Polynesia, and diminished with more or less steadiness.

"In 1874 it was estimated that it had been reduced to 180,000, and in the following year fully one-third of this number died from the scourge of measles."

"Measles!" exclaimed Frank and Fred, in astonishment. "I didn't know," Frank added, "that this disease was a deadly one."

"It is not usually so considered in civilized lands," the Doctor answered, "nor would it have been so here but for the ignorance of the people, and their persistence in doing exactly what they should not have done.

"In the latter part of 1874 Thakombau, King of Feejee, and his sons went to Sydney in an English man-of-war, to pay their respects to the Governor of New South Wales. At Sydney the two youngest boys took measles, but the disease showed itself in such a mild form that nothing was thought of it. On the return voyage in January the King had a slight attack, but it was considered of no consequence, and on his arrival at Levuka he went ashore at once.

"His relatives and subjects came to pay their respects, and according to custom smelt of his hands or his face, and thus took in the poison of the disease. A few days after his arrival there was a meeting of chiefs and other high dignitaries from all the tribes of the group, and the same ceremonies were gone through. In this way the disease was spread through the group, and when it developed it caused the death of nearly every chief who had attended the ceremonial.

ANCIENT FEEJEE TEMPLE.

"All through the Feejees people died by the thousand; in some instances whole villages were struck down, and there were not enough well people to care for the sick or bury the dead. Medical directions were published and sent abroad as soon as possible, but the superstitious people had been told by some of the beach-combers and other scoundrels infesting the islands that the disease had been imported in order to kill them off and get their lands, and that the medicines of the white men were intended to spread rather than check it. The medical directions were ignored; some tribes who had become Christian renounced the new religion and drove out their teachers. In one instance where a teacher died of measles his Christian disciples concluded that it was best to follow the old custom and bury his wife and children with him, in order to propitiate the demon of the scourge."

"Why was the disease so fatal here when it is not so in our own country?" one of the youths inquired.

"You are aware, I presume," the Doctor answered, "that care should be exercised in measles against taking cold, and thus driving the disease to the lungs. These people are continually bathing, and it was the most natural thing in the world for them to rush to the cooling streams as soon as the fever came on them. In this way thousands doomed themselves to death, and besides, there came an unusual rainfall that converted great areas of country into swamps, and rendered it impossible for the people to keep dry even if they had tried to do so.

"As an illustration of the effect of bathing, I may mention the case of the native police at Levuka. A hundred and fifty men were seized with measles, and the officer in charge, an Englishman, immediately established a hospital and ordered those who were least affected to care for the rest. They were forbidden to bathe or allow any one else to do so; all the patients recovered except ten, and of these every man was found to have disobeyed orders and indulged in a bath in the tempting sea which was close by.

"An English resident says that whole villages were swept away by the scourge, the dead were buried in their own houses, and to this day many of the platforms on which the Feejeean houses are built are simply family tombs. The coast towns suffered more than those of the interior, probably in consequence of their being in more swampy ground, and thus more affected by the dampness. The measles were afterwards carried to other groups, where the effect was severe, but not so fatal in proportion to the population as in the Feejees."

With this explanation Frank put down the number of native inhabitants of the Feejees at 120,000; afterwards he obtained at Suva the figures of the census of 1884, which were as follows: European residents, 3513; native Feejeeans, 115,635; Polynesian laborers, 5634; Asiatics, about 5000; and Rotumah men, about 2600.

A POLYNESIAN IDOL.

"What is a Rotumah man?" said Fred, when the above figures were obtained and read aloud by Frank.

"Rotumah," said the Doctor, "is a small island lying in mid-ocean about four hundred miles north of Feejee, and recently made a British possession. The natives are a kindly race; the women are prettier than most other Polynesians, and the men strong and of good size. They make excellent sailors, and you find them in ships all over the South Pacific, and even in other parts of the world. A gentleman who visited Rotumah told me it was no uncommon thing to find natives who had been in New York, London, Liverpool, or Hamburg, and they could discuss the relative merits of sailing and steam vessels with an intelligence not always found among white sailors.

"Though living in an island where nature is kindly and the wants of man are few, the Rotumah men are not unwilling to work; they are consequently sought as laborers in the Samoan, Tahitian, and other groups, and especially in Feejee. So many men have been taken from the island that the supply has been practically exhausted, and the planters are compelled to look elsewhere. Some of the laborers were kidnapped in the manner described in our discussion of the labor-trade, but the most of those who emigrated were fairly and honestly obtained."

The outlying islets of the Feejee group were first sighted by our friends on the yacht, and in due time the peaks of the larger islands came into view. The Feejeean Archipelago is situated between the fifteenth and twenty-second parallels of south latitude, and the meridians of 177° west and 175° east longitude, and scattered over an area of ocean some two hundred miles from north to south, and three hundred from east to west. Its exact extent is not known, as there has been no complete survey of the islands; one is now in progress under the direction of the colonial government, but it will take some time for its completion. Surveying in Feejee is slow and difficult work, owing to the dense tropical vegetation that is found everywhere.

A COAST SCENE IN KANDAVU.

The first island of importance which was sighted by our friends was Kandavu, the fourth largest of the group and containing something like 10,000 inhabitants. As they expected to see it later, they did not stop there, and the youths contented themselves by studying its well-wooded slopes and fertile valleys, and the towering head of Mount Washington 3000 feet high on its western side. The captain told them that Kandavu was the stopping-place of the mail-steamers on their way between San Francisco and Australia, as it was more convenient and less dangerous for them than either Suva or Levuka. He added that it abounded in fine timber, and was a favorite resort for whalers in search of supplies and water.

Steam was made as soon as Kandavu was sighted, and in a few hours the Pera was at anchor in the harbor of Suva, the capital of the British colony of Feejee. It was selected in 1880 by a commission appointed to secure a site for a future capital, the former one, Levuka, having been found disadvantageous in some respects. Levuka is more centrally situated in the archipelago than Suva, but its harbor is not so easy of access, and a ship approaching or leaving it has more dangerous navigation. Levuka is on the small island of Ovolau, while Suva is on the south side of Viti Levu, which is, as before stated, the largest and most populous of the group.

A PLANTER'S RESIDENCE.

On shore our friends found a prosperous-looking place, when its age was taken into consideration, and Frank said it reminded him of a town in California or Colorado. There were half a dozen hotels, several churches, which represented the Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Methodist faiths, a great number of shops and stores, and many well-built warehouses, cottages, and other dwellings. They went to the principal hotel before proceeding to call upon their consuls or make any acquaintances, and the proprietor immediately offered to show them the sights of Suva.

A NEW ARRIVAL.

He pointed out the Governor's residence, the jail, hospital, custom-house, and lunatic asylum, together with other public edifices. Doctor Bronson suggested that there was every indication of a fixed community when so young a place could boast of a jail and a lunatic asylum, not to speak of the custom-house and the hospital.

"We needed a jail here before anything else," was the reply to his remark. "All the riffraff of the South Seas seemed to be collected in Feejee before the annexation, and there was nothing but the powerful arm of law, with jails and other paraphernalia, that could preserve order."

"They had been gathering here for a long time, I presume," said the Doctor, "and were most numerous just before the annexation."

"There had been a fair sprinkling of beach-combers and idlers," was the reply, "ever since the islands were first occupied by white men. After them came men who wished to engage in planting cotton, sugar, and other things for which the islands were supposed to be favorable; there were some adventurers among them; but, on the whole, they were a good class of citizens, as they were nearly all of birth and education, and most of them brought some capital with which to go into business.

"But in the latter part of the sixties we were inundated with a different lot of adventurers. A few came with the design of planting cotton, or engaging in some other honest employment, but the great majority were penniless fellows, with no fondness for decent occupations. Many of them had left the Australian colonies to avoid arrest for swindling or other crimes, and there was a fair share of men for whom the prisons yawned for offences of the most serious character. Down to that time San Francisco had been the haven to which these fellows emigrated, but it was easier to go to Feejee than to America, and therefore Feejee got the benefit."

"I think I heard something about it at the time," the Doctor remarked.

GOING TO FEEJEE.

"Quite likely," responded his informant. "About 1870-71 Feejee was a word of contempt in Australia. 'Gone to Feejee' had the same meaning in Sydney and Melbourne that 'Gone to Texas' had in the United States forty or fifty years ago; but now, under colonial rule, it is an orderly land, and life and property are as safe as in Australia or California."

In the conversation that followed Frank and Fred learned that the late King Thakombau, who died in 1883, offered the sovereignty of the islands to the Queen of England under certain conditions, but the offer was declined. Another offer was made in March, 1874, which was also declined; but in October of the same year a deed of cession gave the sovereignty of the islands to Great Britain. A charter was shortly after issued, making Feejee a colony of Great Britain, and the first governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, arrived in June, 1875, and assumed authority.

The colony has been, on the whole, a prosperous one, though there have been periods of depression. Year by year the capabilities of the islands are becoming better known, and it would seem that there is every known kind of productive soil in Feejee. Its swamps will produce rice in abundance, and the other lands are adapted to sugar, cotton, coffee, sweet-potatoes, yams, and all other tropical productions, while in many localities pease, beans, cabbages, apples, and other fruits and vegetables of the temperate zones are successfully grown.

Frank asked about the cocoanut and bread-fruit trees, and was told that the former was indigenous, and the latter had been grown there so long that it was practically so. The cocoanut-tree was an important article of cultivation, and thousands of acres have been planted with it. For a long time the chief article of export was copra, but latterly it has been exceeded by sugar. In 1875 the export of copra was 3871 tons; in 1884 it was 6682 tons, or nearly double the amount of nine years before. As the young trees come into bearing the exportation of copra will be greatly increased.

SCENE ON A COTTON PLANTATION.