he native pearl-divers, with their
big, luminous eyes shining with excitement, gazed over and beyond the
tops of the palm-trees, and saw the light-green waters of a noble lagoon
that stretched northwest and south-east for fifty miles, and twenty from
east to west.

Aft, on the skylight, Captain Shelley and his mate, with Upaparu, the
chief, leaning over their shoulders, peered over a rough chart of the
Dangerous Archipelago which showed a fairly correct outline of the
island before them. Twelve months before, the master of the brigantine
had heard from the captain of a South Seaman--as whaleships were called
in these days--that this island of Fakarava abounded in pearl shell, and
had determined to ascertain the truth of the statement. As he carefully
studied the chart given him by the captain of the whaler, and read aloud
the names of the villages that appeared here and there, the Tahitian
chief nodded assent and confirmation.

"That is true," he said to the white man, "I have heard these names
before; for long before Tuti the Wise{*} came to Tahiti, we had heard
of these people of Fakarava and their great lagoon, so wide that even if
one climbs the tallest coconut-tree on one side he cannot see across to
the other. And once, when I was a boy, I saw bonito hooks of thick pearl
shell, that were brought to Taiarapu from this place by the Paniola.{**}

* Captain Cook.

* The Spaniards--two Spanish ships fitted out by the
Viceroy of Peru had visited these islands before Cook.

"But then," he went on to say, "O friends of my heart, we must be
careful, for these men of Fakarava are all _aitos_ (fighting men), and
no ship hath ever yet been inside the great lagoon, for the people swarm
off in their canoes, club and spear in hand, and, stripped to the loins,
are ready to fight to the death the stranger that sets foot on their
land."

Somewhat disquieted at this intelligence, the master of the _Queen
Charlotte_ was at first in doubt whether to venture inside or not; but,
looking round him and noting the eager, excited faces of his white crew
and their native messmates, he decided at least to attempt to see for
himself whether there was or was not pearl shell in the lagoon.

By this time the brigantine was within a mile or so of the entrance,
which, on a nearer inspection, presented no difficulties whatever. As
the vessel passed between the roaring lines of surf that thundered and
crashed with astounding