im silence by the Portuguese
forward, but the white men all seemed pleased. This was highly
gratifying to me, for I had tried my best to be helpful to all, as far
as my limited abilities would let me; nor do I think I had an enemy
in the ship. Behold me, then, a full-blown "mister," with a definite
substantial increase in my prospects of pay of nearly one-third,
in addition to many other advantages, which, under the new captain,
promised exceedingly well.

More than half the voyage lay behind us, looking like the fast-settling
bank of storm-clouds hovering above the tempest-tossed sea so lately
passed, while ahead the bright horizon was full of promise of fine
weather for the remainder of the journey.

CHAPTER XVII. VISIT TO HONOLULU

Right glad were we all when, after much fumbling and box-hauling about,
we once more felt the long, familiar roll of the Pacific swell, and saw
the dim fastnesses of the smoky islands fading into the lowering gloom
astern. Most deep-water sailors are familiar, by report if not by actual
contact, with the beauties of the Pacific islands, and I had often
longed to visit them to see for myself whether the half that had been
told me was true. Of course, to a great number of seafaring men, the
loveliness of those regions counts for nothing, their desirability
being founded upon the frequent opportunities of unlimited indulgence in
debauchery. To such men, a "missionary" island is a howling wilderness,
and the missionaries themselves the subjects of the vilest abuse as well
as the most boundless lying.

No one who has travelled with his eyes open would assert that all
missionaries were wise, prudent, or even godly men; while it is a great
deal to be regretted that so much is made of hardships which in a
large proportion of cases do not exist, the men who are supposed to be
enduring them being immensely better off and more comfortable than they
would ever have been at home. Undoubtedly the pioneers of missionary
enterprise had, almost without exception, to face dangers and miseries
past telling, but that is the portion of pioneers in general. In these
days, however, the missionary's lot in Polynesia is not often a hard
one, and in many cases it is infinitely to be preferred to a life among
the very poor of our great cities.

But when all has been said that can be said against the missionaries,
the solid bastion of fact remains that, in consequence of their labours,
the whole vile ch