comfortable houses, and made excellent pottery capable of withstanding
the heat of fire when used for cooking. Their boat-builders constructed
sea-going canoes capable of travelling long distances. They also made a
delicate cloth from the bark of the mulberry tree, upon which they
printed from wooden blocks patterns of great elegance. Their spears and
clubs also showed much taste in their construction and ornamentation.
The women made fishing nets of coconut fibre, with which they captured
an abundance of fish. The tribes on the different islands kept up a
system of barter with one another, exchanging commodities, the making
of which was their hereditary occupation. A son followed the occupation
of his father, and for him to have followed any other occupation would
have been regarded as an offence against ancestors. A son was expected
to do exactly as his father did before him, and to do it in the same
way.

One day when I was fishing outside the reef, I was startled by a cry,
and looking toward whence it came I perceived a young girl in evident
terror, swimming for the reef with the black fin of a shark close upon
her. Going to her assistance I managed, at some risk, to drive off the
shark, and, pulling the girl into my boat I took her on board our ship,
where I delighted her with a present of printed calico with which to
reign as a queen of fashion among her tribe. When I took her ashore she
showed her gratitude by taking my hand in hers, and placing it upon her
forehead, which meant the making of a compact between us that she would
lay down her life for me if occasion should require. It was to this
that we subsequently owed our escape from death.

We had not found anything profitable to trade from these islands with
the exception of sandal wood and tortoiseshell, of which we obtained a
supply, but I noticed that the chief did not appear to grudge anything
we took from him. It became a joke among our crew that they could have
anything for the asking, and the ship was soon a museum of island
curiosities. This aroused my suspicion, for I knew the cupidity of
savages, and how they always try to take all and give nothing in
return.

Toward the end of our visit, I also observed that numbers of savages
from the adjacent islands began to arrive in canoes, and that
preparations were being made for a feast. It was then that I noticed
the girl I had saved from the shark was often to be seen standing on
the beach opposite t