he trees, there came a goodly
multitude in flowing robes; palm-branches in their hands; and as they
came, they sang:--

Hail! voyagers, hail!
Whence e'er ye come, where'er ye rove,
No calmer strand,
No sweeter land,
Will e'er ye view, than the Land of Love!

Hail! voyagers, hail!
To these, our shores, soft gales invite:
The palm plumes wave,
The billows lave,
And hither point fix'd stars of light!

Hail! voyagers, hail!
Think not our groves wide brood with gloom;
In this, our isle,
Bright flowers smile:
Full urns, rose-heaped, these valleys bloom.

Hail! voyagers, hail!
Be not deceived; renounce vain things;
Ye may not find
A tranquil mind,
Though hence ye sail with swiftest wings.

Hail! voyagers, hail!
Time flies full fast; life soon is o'er;
And ye may mourn,
That hither borne,
Ye left behind our pleasant shore.

CHAPTER LXXXIII
They Land

The song was ended; and as we gained the strand, the crowd embraced
us; and called us brothers; ourselves and our humblest attendants.

"Call ye us brothers, whom ere now ye never saw?"

"Even so," said the old man, "is not Oro the father of all? Then, are
we not brothers? Thus Alma, the master, hath commanded."

"This was not our reception in Maramma," said Media, "the appointed
place of Alma; where his precepts are preserved."

"No, no," said Babbalanja; "old man! your lesson of brotherhood was
learned elsewhere than from Alma; for in Maramma and in all its
tributary isles true brotherhood there is none. Even in the Holy
Island many are oppressed; for heresies, many murdered; and thousands
perish beneath the altars, groaning with offerings that might relieve
them."

"Alas! too true. But I beseech ye, judge not Alma by all those who
profess his faith. Hast thou thyself his records searched?"

"Fully, I have not. So long, even from my infancy, have I witnessed
the wrongs committed in his name; the sins and inconsistencies of his
followers; that thinking all evil must flow from a congenial fountain,
I have scorned to study the whole record of your Master's life. By
parts I only know it."

"Ah! baneful error! But thus is it, brothers!! that the wisest are set
against the Truth, because of those who wrest it from itself."

"Do ye then claim to live what your Master hath spoken? Are your
prec