. Night
fell, and they were preparing to sleep, when, above the thud and hiss
of the waves they heard the noise of approaching crowds. The footsteps
and the talking came nearer, while the little group of Christians
listened intently. At last a chief, carried by his warriors, came
near. He was the fiercest and most powerful chief on the island.

When he came close to Papeiha and his friends, the chief demanded that
the wife of one of the Christian teachers should be given to him,
so that he might take her away with him as his twentieth wife. The
teachers argued with the chief, the woman wept; but he ordered the
woman to be seized and taken off. She resisted, as did the others.
Their clothes were torn to tatters by the ferocious Rarotongans. All
would have been over with the Christians, had not Tapairu,[20] a brave
Rarotongan woman and the cousin of the king, opposed the chiefs and
even fought with her hands to save the teacher's wife. At last the
fierce chief gave in, and Papeiha and his friends, before the sun
had risen, hurried to the beach, leapt into their canoe and paddled
swiftly to the ship.

"We must wait and come to this island another day when the people are
more friendly," said every one--except Papeiha, who never would turn
back. "Let me stay with them," said he.

He knew that he might be slain and eaten by the savage cannibals on
the island. But without fuss, leaving everything he had upon the
ship except his clothes and his native Testament, he dropped into his
canoe, seized the paddle, and with swift, strong strokes that never
faltered, drove the canoe skimming over the rolling waves till it
leapt to the summit of a breaking wave and ground upon the shore.

The savages came jostling and waving spears and clubs as they crowded
round him.

"Let us take him to Makea."

So Papeiha was led to the chief. As he walked he heard them shouting
to one another, "I'll have his hat," "I'll have his jacket," "I'll
have his shirt."

At length he reached the chief, who looked and said, "Speak to us, O
man, that we may know why you persist in coming."

"I come," he answered, looking round on all the people, "so that you
may all learn of the true God, and that you, like all the people in
the far-off islands of the sea, may take your gods made of wood, of
birds' feathers and of cloth, and burn them."

A roar of anger and horror burst from the people. "What!" they cried,
"burn the gods! What gods shall we then have