th it, also, his canoe, loaded down
to the gunwale with a sea stock of fruits. Giving him all I could
spare from my chest, I went on deck to take my place at the windlass;
for the anchor was weighing. Poky followed, and heaved with me at the
same handspike.

The anchor was soon up; and away we went out of the bay with more than
twenty shallops towing astern. At last they left us; but long as I
could see him at all, there was Poky, standing alone and motionless
in the bow of his canoe.

PART II

CHAPTER XL.

WE TAKE UNTO OURSELVES FRIENDS

THE arrival of the chests made my friend, the doctor, by far the
wealthiest man of the party. So much the better for me, seeing that I
had little or nothing myself; though, from our intimacy, the natives
courted my favour almost as much as his.

Among others, Kooloo was a candidate for my friendship; and being a
comely youth, quite a buck in his way, I accepted his overtures. By
this, I escaped the importunities of the rest; for be it known that,
though little inclined to jealousy in love matters, the Tahitian will
hear of no rivals in his friendship.

Kooloo, running over his qualifications as a friend, first of all
informed me that he was a "Mickonaree," thus declaring his communion
with the church.

The way this "tayo" of mine expressed his regard was by assuring me
over and over again that the love he bore me was "nuee, nuee, nuee,"
or infinitesimally extensive. All over these seas, the word "nuee"
is significant of quantity. Its repetition is like placing ciphers at
the right hand of a numeral; the more places you carry it out to, the
greater the sum. Judge, then, of Kooloo's esteem. Nor is the allusion
to the ciphers at all inappropriate, seeing that, in themselves,
Kooloo's profession turned out to be worthless. He was, alas! as
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; one of those who make no music
unless the clapper be silver.

In the course of a few days, the sailors, like the doctor and myself,
were cajoled out of everything, and our "tayos," all round, began to
cool off quite sensibly. So remiss did they become in their
attentions that we could no longer rely upon their bringing us the
daily supply of food, which all of them had faithfully promised.

As for Kooloo, after sponging me well, he one morning played the part
of a retrograde lover; informing me that his affections had undergone
a change; he had fallen in love at first sight with a smart sailor,
wh