g
nearer and nearer the shore.

When morning broke, he found that he was not more than a few
cable-lengths from the beach. As the light increased he looked out
anxiously, and, much to his satisfaction, saw that he was drifting
towards a sandy bay. He cast off the lashings which had hitherto
secured him, that he might swim on shore, knowing that the life-buoy
would in all probability be rolled over and over.

It now advanced but little; and he was on the point of parting from it
and beginning to swim, when he saw several natives come down to the
beach, and among them a white lad. The former stood gazing at him,
apparently indifferent to the rude breakers; the lad, however, directly
afterwards began to launch a small canoe which lay on the beach, and
jumping into it and actively working the paddle, made his way through
the breakers towards him. Popo being quite sure that he came as a
friend, left the life-buoy as soon as he drew near, and with a few
strokes reached the bow of the canoe, over which he soon scrambled; when
the boy at once paddled back to the beach, carrying him safely through
the breakers. The savages, who were as brown as those he had before
seen, gathered round him and examined his skin with much curiosity,
supposing, he observed, that he had got on a black coat. They then made
him and the white boy stand together, grinning at the contrast which
their colours presented, and evidently satisfied that they themselves
were the just medium.

Popo, who was very hungry, now made signs that he wanted something to
eat. His new friend, hastening away, quickly returned from a hut at no
great distance with some food, which the brown savages did not prevent
his giving him. Popo soon found, however, that although his life was to
be spared he was to be treated as a slave, as the white boy appeared to
be.

After remaining on the beach a short time, the savages led him to their
village, which consisted of a number of low huts. The women had been
preparing their morning meal, after which some of the men went out to
kill birds, while others occupied themselves in a taro plantation on
some level ground to the rear of their village. Popo, meantime, who
could scarcely keep his eyes open, was conducted by his white friend to
a hut, where the latter spread a mat for him, and made signs that he
might lie down. Scarcely had he done so when he fell fast asleep.

The next day, the weather being finer, many of the me