oked on with the most absorbed interest
while Cunningham took a little dry moss in his hand and focused the
sun's rays upon it with a burning-glass, afterwards fanning it into a
flame by gently whirling it in the air; and I shall not readily forget
their amazement when the moss burst into flame and Cunningham thrust it
into the heart of the heap of sticks. When Cunningham made to return
the lens to his pocket, Mokalua held out his hand and said something
which we readily understood to be a request that he might be permitted
to look at it: and when the engineer handed it over to him the native
first examined it with wondering eyes, turning it about in his hands,
holding it up, and becoming quite eloquent in the expression of his
amazement when his quick eye detected the inverted image of the
landscape seen through it; then, after one or two futile attempts, he
succeeded in focusing the rays of the sun upon his naked arm, giving a
little yelp as he felt the sting of the heat. Finally, with a laugh, he
handed the lens back to Cunningham; but there was a covetous look in his
eyes as he did so which caused me to utter a word of warning to the
engineer lest he should awake some fine morning and discover that his
burning-glass had mysteriously vanished.

In such manner, and to the accompaniment of quite a number of amusing
little incidents, did Mokalua and Vati become members of our small
community. And glad enough were we all to have them, for the
awkwardness and inconvenience arising from our inability to understand
each other's speech soon passed away, the two savages manifesting an
extraordinary aptitude to adapt themselves to the situation, and an
equally extraordinary facility in the comprehension of what was required
of them; so that they rapidly became of very material value to us,
catching more fish than the party could consume, gathering our firewood
for us, teaching us new methods of cooking, and assisting us in the more
laborious portions of our shipyard work. Thus by the time they had been
with us some three or four months we began to wonder how we had ever
contrived to rub along at all without them.

Their one fault was an ineradicable propensity to steal anything and
everything that they could lay their hands upon, especially nails--
which, it will be understood, were of very considerable value to us,
situated as we then were. But their most serious peccadillo, and the
one which had the most disastrous res