, to try and obtain as a 'green' hand
a young Chilian seaman who, the captain of the Chilian corvette
O'HIGGINS informed me, had run away there. On landing I was shown the
body of a young girl, whom the natives stated to be the deserter. She
had died that morning. Buried her as decently as circumstances would
permit. From a letter she wrote on the morning of her death I learned
her name to be Senora Teresa T----. Her husband, Dr Francis T----, was
an Englishman in the service of the Chilian Republic. He was sent out
on a scientific mission to the island, and his wife followed him in the
O'HIGGINS disguised as a blue-jacket. I should take her to have been
about nineteen years of age.

"SPENCE ELDRIDGE, MASTER.
"MANUAL LEGASPE, 2ND OFFICER.
"Brig POCAHONTAS, of Martha's Vineyard, U.S.A."

"Well, that's curious now," said the skipper of the NASSAU; "why, I
knew that man. He left the island in the KING DARIUS, of New Bedford,
and landed at Ponape in the Caroline Group, whar those underground
ruins are at Metalanien Harbour. Guess he wanted to potter around there
a bit. But he got inter some sorter trouble among the natives there,
an' he got shot."

"Aye," said the captain of the DAGGET, "I remember the affair. I was
mate of the JOSEPHINE, and we were lying at Jakoits Harbour when he was
killed, and now I remember the name too. Waal, he wasn't much account,
anyhow."

* * * * *

Ten years ago a wandering white man stood, with Taku the Sailor, at the
base of the wall of the great PAPAKU, and the native pointed out the
last resting-place of the wanderer. There, under the shadow of the
Silent Faces of Stone, the brave and loving heart that dared so much is
at peace for ever.

BRANTLEY OF VAHITAHI

One day a trading vessel lay becalmed off Tatakoto, in the Paumotu
Archipelago, and the captain and supercargo, taking a couple of native
sailors with them, went ashore at dawn to catch some turtle. The turtle
were plentiful and easily caught, and after half a dozen had been put
in the boat, the two white men strolled along the white hard beach. The
captain--old, grizzled, and grim--seemed to know the place well, and
led the way.

* * * * *

The island is very narrow, and as they left the beach and gained the
shade of the forest of coconuts that grew to the margin of high-water
mark, they could see, between the tall, stately palms, the placid
waters of the lagoon, and a mile or so across, the inner beach