were hundreds of wood-doves and pigeons, and
their peaceful notes filled the forest with saddening melody. "No one
ever fires a gun here," said my companion softly, "it is forbidden. And
it is to my mind that the birds know that it is a sacred place and holy
ground."

CHAPTER XXII ~ VANAKI, THE STRONG SWIMMER

On the afternoon of the 4th of June, 1885, the Hawaiian labour schooner
_Mana_, of which I was "recruiter" was beating through Apolima Straits,
which divide the islands of Upolu and Savai'i. The south-east trade was
blowing very strongly and a three-knot current setting against the
wind had raised a short, confused sea, and our decks were continually
flooded. But we had to thrash through it with all the sail we could
possibly carry, for among the sixty-two Gilbert Islands "recruits" I had
on board three had developed symptoms of what we feared was small-pox,
and we were anxious to reach the anchorage off the town of Mulifanua at
the west end of Upolu before dark. At Mulifanua there was a large German
cotton plantation, employing four hundred "recruited" labourers, and on
the staff of European employes was a resident doctor. In the ordinary
course of things we should have gone on to Apia, which was twenty miles
farther on, and our port of destination, and handed over my cargo of
"recruits" to the manager of the German firm there; but as Mulifanua
Plantation was also owned by them, and my "recruits" would probably be
sent there eventually, the captain and I decided to land the entire
lot at that place, instead of taking them to Apia, where the European
community would be very rough upon us if the disease on board did turn
out to be small-pox.

As the skipper and I were standing aft, watching the showers of spray
that flew over the schooner every time a head sea smacked her in the
face, one of the hands shouted out that there was a man in the water,
close to on the weather bow. Hauling our head sheets to windward we
head-reached towards him, and in a few minutes the man, who was swimming
in the most gallant fashion, was alongside, and clambered on board. He
was a rather dark-skinned Polynesian, young, and of extremely powerful
physique.

"Thanks, good friends," he said, speaking in halting Samoan. "'Tis a
high sea in which to swim. Yet," and here he glanced around him at the
land on both sides, "I was half-way across."

"Come below," I said, "and take food and drink, and I will give you a
_lava-lava_ (wai