e poor islanders were
enticed on board under the pretence of trading, others were carried off
by force. On several occasions when canoes had come alongside, the men
were dragged out of them, and the canoes sunk. In some instances whole
islands had been depopulated, when, from the smallness of their number,
the inhabitants were unable to defend themselves against the attacks of
the kidnappers.

I believe there is some soft part of the human heart, if it can be got
at. By the way I talked to Sam Pest, and by occasionally giving him
some tobacco, he seemed to take a liking to me. When I pointed out to
him the evil of his ways, he acknowledged that he wished he were a
better man, and if I would help him, he would try to him over a new
leaf. I cannot say that I thought this very likely, from the way I
heard him talking to the men.

We had now commenced our search for the Pearl Islands, as Tom Platt
asserted we must be close to them. He said that he was certain he
should know them again if he could once get sight of them. Now we stood
to the northward, now tacked in one direction, now in another, now ran
before the wind, carefully marking down our track on the chart, so that
we might know what ground we had gone over.

"This reminds me of the long time the missionary Williams was searching
for the island of Barotonga before he discovered it," observed Charles
Tilston. "He, however, went not to seek wealth for himself, but to
carry a pearl of great price to the benighted inhabitants. How I should
like to have a vessel and to cruise over the ocean with the same object
in view, dropping missionaries here and there as it was found possible
to land them."

"Such is being done now," I observed. "I heard a good deal about it at
Brisbane, and how the Bishop of New Zealand in his little schooner makes
long voyages for that purpose. There are also two or three other
vessels employed by different societies with the same object in view."

"I must make inquiries about them," answered Charles Tilston, and he
seemed lost in thought.

As we had been four days cruising about without coming in sight of the
wished-for islands, at last Harry began to fear that old Tom had made
some unaccountable mistake. He again and again cross-questioned him on
the subject. The mate was, however, positive that he was right, and
that we should see the islands if we looked long enough for them.

"They may be rather more to the eastward or no